Author | Lightnews

David Leftwich

@davidleftwich.bsky.social

2.4K followers 1.3K following 450 posts

Dad/cook. 2025 Omnidawn 1st/2nd Poetry Book winner: at dawn, the first of the first to sing, pubs Fall ‘27. Writer/editor covering Houston food: Houston Chronicle, Edible Houston, Houston Food Finder, Sugar&Rice, Cite. https://www.davidleftwich.net/

www.davidleftwich.net

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David Leftwich @davidleftwich.bsky.social · Sep 3

Some exciting news to share: My manuscript at dawn, the first of the first to sing has been selected winner of the @omnidawn.bsky.social 2025 1st/2nd Poetry Book Contest by @daniela-naomi.bsky.social — get her amazing book Chorus.

I’m honored to be published by an independent press I 1/3 #poetry

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Ayanna Pressley @ayannapressley.bsky.social · 8h

From serving as freshmen in the 116th Congress, to fighting for the ERA, to your making history in Virginia.

Congratulations to @abigailspanberger.com for flipping VA & becoming the Commonwealth's first woman Governor.

And TY to the staff, volunteers, & voters who made it possible.

Congresswomen Ayanna Pressley and Abigail Spanberger pose for a photo with Congresswoman Spanberger's mother holding a sign that reads Equal Rights.

Congresswomen Ayanna Pressley and Abigail Spanberger pose for a photo holding up a banner that reads the full text of the Equal Rights Amendment.

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Bolts @boltsmag.org · 8h

RESULT: Democrat Ghazala Hashmi has won the race for Virginia lieutenant governor, the AP calls.

She has flipped the office for Democrats, and will replace Republican Winsome Earle-Sears, who has lost the governor’s.

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Mueller, She Wrote @muellershewrote.com · 8h

BREAKING: Decision Desk calls New Jersey Governor for democrat MIKIE SHERRILL

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The Associated Press @apnews.com · 8h

BREAKING: Democrat Aftab Pureval wins Cincinnati mayoral election over Cory Bowman, half-brother of Vice President JD Vance.

Follow AP for live updates.

Live updates: US voters head to the polls in first general election since Trump's return to power

One year after Donald Trump retook the presidency, 2025 Election Day includes closely watched races for New York City mayor, New Jersey governor and California's Proposition 50.

bit.ly

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Ron Charles @roncharles.bsky.social · 21h

"More than half of the companies that donated to Trump's ballroom are facing or have recently faced federal enforcement actions tied to alleged wrongdoing that includes engaging in unfair labor practices, deceiving consumers and harming the environment."
wapo.st/4hD7dm0

Report: Donors to Trump’s White House ballroom have $279B in federal contracts

The White House ballroom’s donor list contains heavyweights in the tech, financial and defense sectors, including Google, Comcast and Lockheed Martin.

wapo.st

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Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · 21h

"In the process ... Common Crawl has opened a back door for AI companies to train their models with paywalled articles from major news websites. And the foundation appears to be lying to publishers about this—as well as masking the actual contents of its archives."

Damon Beres @damonberes.com · 21h

NEW: Common Crawl, the massive archiver of the web, has gotten cozy with AI companies and is providing paywalled articles for training data. They’re also lying to publishers who have asked for material to be removed. “The robots are people too,” CC’s exec director told us when we asked about this.

The Nonprofit Feeding the Entire Internet to AI Companies

Common Crawl claims to provide a public benefit, but it lies to publishers about its activities.

www.theatlantic.com

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Lex McMenamin (they/them) @leximcmenamin.com · 1d

thank you for all the support; the statement from our union is now live here with some more reporting.

now that this is public I can confirm that the majority of today’s layoffs were women of color. there are no longer any Black women working at Teen Vogue.

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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 21h

💯

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Marc Elias @marcelias.bsky.social · 1d

When I read the full transcript of the interview, I realized there had been no pushback, no corrections, no challenging follow-ups. The entire interview had been an open-ended opportunity for Trump to tell rambling lies, only to have them cleaned up into a more polished product.

60 Minutes Obeys in Advance

Read more here.

www.democracydocket.com

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🗽LOLGOP🗽 @thefarce.org · 1d

The GOP strategy is now “starve tens of millions of people until Democrats let us take away health insurance from millions of Americans.”

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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 2d

I will never understand the pundit obsession with getting Democrats to solve "political division."

Not only is this what they're already doing, but Klein admits that Republicans will never do the same. So elections will remain constant GOP smears and simping Democratic promises of bipartisanship.

Ezra Klein

This Is the Way You Beat Trump — and Trumpism

I saw a poll a few weeks ago that struck me. It was from The New York Times and Siena University. It asked Americans what they thought the top problem facing the country was. No. 1 was the economy. That was what I expected. But No. 2 wasn’t immigration or inflation or democracy or climate change or even Trump. It was political division. In that same poll, 64 percent of the country said we’re too divided to solve our problems. They’re not wrong.

I hear it when Trump says, “I hate my opponent and I don’t want the best for them.” When I hear that, I hear something scary, but I also hear an opening, an opportunity: In the end, most Americans want America to work. They know we disagree with one another. They don’t want us to hate one another.

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Faine Greenwood @faineg.bsky.social · 2d

Even if you were willing to buy that an LLM/Gen AI tool has human-like intellect, you’re still left with the fact that an LLM doesn’t NEED a job to remain alive under capitalism, but a human does.

morality-wise, surely many would agree that humans should thus be given priority for jobs due to need

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Blue Heron Farm @blueheronfarm.bsky.social · 2d

I will not, as discussed before, read another single story that is clutching pearls about people's reproductive choices. But every time I see one, I'll remind you that there is no economic problem that cannot be solved with immigration and/or taxing wealth hoarders.

NPR @npr.org · 2d

Family size around the world is dropping. That choice by couples is triggering a population shift that's sending shock waves through economies.

People are having fewer kids. Their choice is transforming the world's economy

Family size around the world is dropping. That choice by couples is triggering a population shift that's sending shock waves through economies.

n.pr

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Gabe Ortíz @tusk81.bsky.social · 3d

Elderly billionaire authoritarian “gleefully posted photos of the all-marble bathroom, the day before food stamp funding is set to run out.” newrepublic.com/post/202555/...

Trump Brags About Hideous Bathroom Renovation in Middle of Shutdown

Donald Trump gleefully posted photos of the all-marble bathroom, the day before food stamp funding is set to run out.

newrepublic.com

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Charlotte Clymer @charlotteclymer.bsky.social · 3d

Male veterans are encountering obstacles in getting treatment for breast cancer in the VA system because of Trump's executive order meant to oppress trans people. I say that again: non-trans men are struggling to get treatment for breast cancer due to transphobia.

www.propublica.org/article/vete...

Citing Trump Order on “Biological Truth,” VA Makes It Harder for Male Veterans With Breast Cancer to Get Coverage

A Department of Veterans Affairs memo obtained by ProPublica erects new roadblocks to care for veterans with the rare but deadly cancer. The agency cites no new science but relies on an executive orde...

www.propublica.org

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David Leftwich @davidleftwich.bsky.social · 7d

Turns out it isn’t immigrants taking away jobs but billionaires with AI and robots: apple.news/AmrkW3H4UR6m...

Amazon Lays Off 14,000 Corporate Staff, One of the Largest Job Cuts in Its History — Entrepreneur

The move arrives as Amazon makes significant investments in AI infrastructure, with capital expenditures expected to exceed $120 billion for the year.

apple.news

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Mike Masnick @mmasnick.bsky.social · 9d

Same guy who eagerly and gleefully talked about putting kids in cages. Mike Davis is not just a horrible human being, he relishes in being horrible. www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-likel...

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Rep. Norma Torres @normajtorres.bsky.social · 12d

The government’s been shut down for 23 days.

Americans are going hungry, missing paychecks, and losing health care.

Yet Trump’s priority? Building a $300M East Wing for himself.

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Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · 12d

SNAP benefits expire in one week.

Acyn @acyn.bsky.social · 12d

Leavitt: At this moment in time, the ballroom is really the president's main priority.

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Bill Grueskin @bgrueskin.bsky.social · 12d

NBC News finds that:
-- ICE has shortened its training from 13 weeks to six.
-- Nearly half of recruits couldn’t pass an open-book written exam.
-- Recruits "are supposed to attest" they can pass the physical-fitness test, which requires them to run ... 6 mph.

www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcn...

Some new ICE recruits have shown up to training without full vetting

The recruits have had criminal backgrounds or failed drug tests or were unable to meet physical or academic standards, raising concerns about the agency’s rush to hire immigration officers, sources to...

www.nbcnews.com

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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 12d

Did the New York Times have an editorial meeting where they said something like “these are trustworthy people, we should take their word, put it headlines, that’s good journalism.”

Did they go so far as to say “we should help the Trump administration sell this action”?

Or do they just sorta do it?

“U.S. Strikes 2nd Boat in Pacific as Antidrug Operation Expands”

New York Times headline, October 23, 2025.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/22/us/politics/trump-drug-boat-strike-colombia.html

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 14d

the president has destroyed the east wing of the white house without so much as a word of input from anyone else to build a royal ballroom paid for with bribes

Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 14d

NEW: After The Washington Post reported Monday on the demolition of the "East Wing facade," a new picture obtained by Law Dork that was taken on Tuesday shows that a substantial portion of the entirety of the East Wing has been demolished.

Photograph of ongoing demolition of the East Wing of the White House.

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MeidasTouch @meidastouch.com · 14d

It’s fitting that he thinks Darth Vader was the good guy

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 14d

Trump: "We have Darth Vader. You know Darth Vader, right? Darth Vader is a man who is sitting -- is that Darth? Stand up please. Does everybody know -- they call him Darth Vader, I call him a fine man. But he's cutting Democrat priorities and they're never gonna get them back."

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Media Matters for America @mmfa.bsky.social · 15d

Fox News star Laura Ingraham spent years railing against the purported corruption caused by Hunter Biden's business interests. Now she’s going into business with Donald Trump Jr.

Star Fox host Laura Ingraham is now in business with the president’s son

www.mediamatters.org

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