Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Donna Benenson

Leonid Baezhnev @rev-avocado.bsky.social · 5h

Really seems like a thing that a consortium of blue states could set up in exile, maybe with corporate donation help.

Sheryl Gay Stolberg @sherylnyt.bsky.social · 14h

BREAKING: Friday night massacre underway at CDC. Doznes of "disease detectives," high-level scientists, entire Washington staff and editors of the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) have all been RIFed and received the following notice:

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Reposted by Donna Benenson

cybergent1.bsky.social @cybergent1.bsky.social · 5h

youtube.com/watch?v=BaHH...

Trump pulls DANGEROUS stunt, SHOCKS his OWN party | Another Day

YouTube video by Brian Tyler Cohen

youtube.com

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Reposted by Donna Benenson

Matt Davies @mattdaviescartoon.bsky.social · 19h

Newsday.com/matt

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AnnieOakleyinGA @annie1x.bsky.social · 21h

The murders of the Venezuelan and Colombian fishermen are crimes against humanity. Can’t the people that ordered this and carried it out be prosecuted? Does the SC’s immunity ruling protect trump? I don’t want people who co-sign murder on the Supreme Court!
abcnews.go.com/Internationa...

Colombian president says US military struck Colombian boat, killed his citizens

The last boat struck by the U.S. military in the Caribbean Sea was Colombian with Colombian citizens inside, Colombian President Gustavo Petro said on Wednesday.

abcnews.go.com

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Angus Johnston @angus.bsky.social · 22h

Useful context on the House GOP's refusal to seat Rep. Grijalva. Once the election results are certified by the state—likely as early as Wednesday of next week—they have no legal basis to prevent her being sworn in.

T. Greg "Antifa General Counsel (Retired)" Doucette @gregdoucette.bsky.social · 22h

Once the results are certified by whatever state authority does it, yes

The statewide canvass is October 14th. I assume certification will be that day.

Rs aren't swearing Grijalva in early, which is shitty but not illegal. But there's nothing they can do once her results are certified

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David Rothkopf @djrothkopf.bsky.social · 1d

Machado's pro-Trump social post accepting the Peace Prize shows that she is apparently only pro-democracy in Venezuela and doesn't care that much about it anywhere else. Or alternatively, she is only against certain authoritarians and would prefer to pick her own. Ugly. Revealing.

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Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 1d

Do they have a prize for blowing up boats in the Caribbean and then bragging that people who made their livelihood fishing there for generations are now afraid to go out on the water?

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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 1d

My quote of the day

We have managed to unite a country tearing down the barriers the regime built to divide us. Ours is a fight of a nation united against a criminal tyranny, in defense of its human rights, freedom, and democracy. That is why we have no alternative but victory

María Corina Machado

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 1d

Immigrant Nobel Prize winners exiting the United States

Florian Scheuer @florianscheuer.bsky.social · 1d

I am delighted to share that Nobel laureates Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee will join our Department of Economics @econ.uzh.ch at the University of Zurich on July 1, 2026, as Lemann Foundation Professors of Economics.

🧵 1/7

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Mrs. Betty Bowers @mrsbettybowers.bsky.social · 1d

One thing we've learned from the American judicial system: The first 34 felonies are on the house*.

*Terms and conditions may apply. See prosecutors for details if you're not white. Or rich.

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Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 1d

Immigrants have been awarded 40% of the Nobel Prizes won by Americans in chemistry, medicine and physics since 2000. nfap.com/research/new...

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Beddy @lancecalhoon.bsky.social · 1d

I did not realise that arms manufacturers sponsored the National Press Club until this story came out but jfc how compromised can you be

Donna Benenson @donnabenenson.bsky.social · 1d

"...the NPC’s list of sponsors reveals the problem. Among them are no less than ten firms with links to the arms industry that is profiting from Israel’s destruction of Gaza, including four of the very largest defence manufacturers in the world – BAE, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and Thales."

Nick Feik @nickfeik.bsky.social · 1d

New:
Censorship by any other name.
The National Press Club cancelled a speaker, Chris Hedges, who planned to address the mass killing of journalists in Gaza. The mainstream press didn’t report it.
nickfeik.substack.com/p/censorship...

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Donna Benenson @donnabenenson.bsky.social · 1d

"...the NPC’s list of sponsors reveals the problem. Among them are no less than ten firms with links to the arms industry that is profiting from Israel’s destruction of Gaza, including four of the very largest defence manufacturers in the world – BAE, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and Thales."

Nick Feik @nickfeik.bsky.social · 1d

New:
Censorship by any other name.
The National Press Club cancelled a speaker, Chris Hedges, who planned to address the mass killing of journalists in Gaza. The mainstream press didn’t report it.
nickfeik.substack.com/p/censorship...

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Reposted by Donna Benenson

Nick Feik @nickfeik.bsky.social · 1d

New:
Censorship by any other name.
The National Press Club cancelled a speaker, Chris Hedges, who planned to address the mass killing of journalists in Gaza. The mainstream press didn’t report it.
nickfeik.substack.com/p/censorship...

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Reposted by Donna Benenson

DocDanPgh @docdanpgh.bsky.social · 1d

People keep saying that Trump is prosecuting his political enemies but that’s not what this is.

She’s not a political enemy, she’s a prosecutor who charged and tried a criminal. The criminal got away and now has the power to exact revenge. A mobster ordering a hit. That’s all this is!

Steven Beschloss @stevenbeschloss.bsky.social · 1d

It’s hard to overstate how grotesque is the prosecution of Letitia James. I hope John Roberts—who unleashed this malignant, vengeful career criminal on our beloved country—is enjoying Trump’s utter abuse of power and trashing of justice and the rule of law.

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Donna Benenson @donnabenenson.bsky.social · 2d

“'The soil was ready to turn on...

"'This whole project has become a celebration, because who would have thought that underneath meters and meters of contaminated soil were these seeds waiting to come back to life? It’s a reminder to us all of what is possible'”

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Creatures buried in soil for over a century burst back to life in Toronto waterfront

A project to restore coastal wetland leads to astonishing discoveries of a host of life: seeds and plant scraps, as well as water fleas, worms, larvae and plankton

www.theguardian.com

Donna Benenson @donnabenenson.bsky.social · 2d

"Anti-fascist" is the accurate term. No responsible person or media should be using the term "Antifa" - let alone capitalizing the word - when no such organization exists.

Karl Bode @karlbode.com · 2d

you'd think a prominent news outlet like the New York Times might mention that "antifa" isn't an actual organization in a long story about antifa, but nope!

and the subhead helps props up a false claim this professor was up to something seedy as something up for debate

NYT headline: "Rutgers Expert on Antifa Tries to Flee to Spain After Death Threats"

subheadline: "Mark Bray was teaching courses on antifascism. Turning Point USA accused him of belonging to antifa, which he denies. His flight to Spain was canceled abruptly on Wednesday night."

Reposted by Donna Benenson

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

New in PN: Trump is the insurrection

"It’s a wild assault on state sovereignty, bringing us ever closer to the brink of civil war. This is despotism, & whatever chaos & violence is about to be unleashed lies squarely on the robed shoulders of Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, & Barrett."

Trump is the insurrection

And the Supreme Court's conservatives are his shock troops.

www.publicnotice.co

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Sen. Adam Schiff @schiff.senate.gov · 3d

Today, Senator Kaine and I will force the Senate to vote on the administration’s decision to blow up ships in the Caribbean.

If a president can unilaterally put people or groups on a list and kill them, there is no meaningful limit to his use of force.

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Denise Wheeler @denisedwheeler.bsky.social · 3d

So Bondi plans her congressional hearings by bringing up dirt on the senators who questioned her rather than answering the questions. This is the lying schemer that is running the DOJ.

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Leo O’Shaughnessy @leoie.bsky.social · 2d

Link to the photos from
Reuters without a shitty DailyBeast paywall who don’t even own the photos. newrepublic.com/post/201475/...

Photographer Captures Pam Bondi’s Notes—and They’re a Doozy

Attorney General Pam Bondi came to the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing armed with nothing more than lame canned attacks.

newrepublic.com

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RDS (formerly shawphd) @rds773.bsky.social · 3d

I don’t think he can trust either the Guard or the cops to fight feds on his say-so, and he’s clearly been focused on establishing the illegality of Trump’s actions

But I don’t know what he can do *legally* to escalate resistance under these conditions

He’s one dude

He needs help

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RDS (formerly shawphd) @rds773.bsky.social · 3d

He needs the national Democrats to back him and fight with and for him

He needs the same from the other governors

He’s not powerless but one state can’t stand alone either

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 3d

The elimination of USAID is a moral atrocity and all involved made a choice to enable, and then lie about, ending the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in the world.

MAE SOT, Thailand (AP) - Mohammed Taher clutched the lifeless body of his 2-year-old son and wept. Ever since his family's food rations stopped arriving at their internment camp in Myanmar in April, the father had watched helplessly as his once-vibrant baby boy weakened, suffering from diarrhea and begging for food.
On May 21, exactly two weeks after Taher's little boy died, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio sat before Congress and declared: "No one has died" because of his government's decision to gut its foreign aid program. Rubio also insisted: "No children are dying on my watch."
That, Taher says, "is a lie."

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Andrew D Thaler @drandrewthaler.bsky.social · 3d

It's a good sign, but I think there are a few good lessons here. She won because the state Democratic Party put it's support behind her. That matters a lot.

Voter pool for this election will probably be less than 5000. 10 point win is 500 voters. Every person you convince to ditch the GOP matters.

Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 3d

JUST IN: The Republican Mayor of Fairbanks, Alaska’s second biggest city, lost re-election last night to a Democrat.

Mayor David Pruhs is a conservative who fought protections for LGBTQ+ residents; he made comments this year drew condemnation this year from Alaska Natives. He lost to Mindy O'Neall.

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