Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Garrett M. Graff @vermontgmg.bsky.social · 4h

I keep saying “it’s almost impossible to explain how corrupt this is” but then something like this happens that’s even MORE corrupt:

Brad Heath @bradheath.bsky.social · 4h

President Trump is demanding that the Justice Department pay him about $230 million in compensation for the federal investigations into him.

Whether he gets paid will ultimately be up to DOJ's second-in-command, who was recently his personal lawyer.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/u...

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RiotGrlErin @riotgrlerin.bsky.social · 19h

for every fifty likes, within reason, you’ll get a, stay with me, deli parton.

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Harry @harry.bsky.team · 5h

A note for sports: Bluesky’s engagement rate was x10 higher than X’s across a sampling of identical posts made on both platforms by @rapsheet.bsky.social (sharing with permission)

Fwiw we see a similar trend across all communities, not just sports. Real people, real conversations.

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Black Aziz Anansi @blackazizanansi.blacksky.app · 4h

If you are feeling shitty then stop what you are doing and listen to this

m.youtube.com/watch?v=QxOf...

Sesame Street: Sing/Canta | #ThrowbackThursday

YouTube video by Sesame Street

m.youtube.com

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Casey Explosion @caseyexplosion.bsky.social · 9h

It's hard to fathom for most people just how much effort and money is being poured into anti-trans shit, but it's billionaires, the entire apparatus of religious right think tanks like ADF, Heritage etc, entire media empires like Rupert Murdoch's, whole political parties and world governments...

Charlie Jane "Lessons in Magic and Disaster" Anders 🏳️‍⚧ @charliejane.bsky.social · 10h

I'm so sick of discourse from supposed allies about where trans people went wrong.

Where we "went wrong" is that billionaires spent unimaginably large sums to attack us repeatedly and major media outlets have spent a decade piling on.

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Diedrich Bader @diedrichbader.bsky.social · 6h

“I said ‘you don’t know why? That makes no sense!’ Then they said ‘we’re made up people who say whatever you think of’ and i said ‘you’re my only friends and now I’ll sing a little song about you’ and they said ‘we love when you sing you should do it at the Super Bowl’ can you believe it?”

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David_j_roth @davidjroth.bsky.social · 7h

You have to be willing to walk away from these guys if they let you down, just as a matter of basic self respect. It's not a fandom. You're hiring them to do a job or not.

timothy faust @tbone.malware-virus.biz · 9h

I liked the Platner ads too but I think there's a difference between "guy who had some bad reddit posts a decade ago" and "ex-Blackwater merc who still has a Nazi tattoo." Sucks bigtime that he's the only one taking positions and talking policy I like, but them's the breaks!

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Charlie Jane "Lessons in Magic and Disaster" Anders 🏳️‍⚧ @charliejane.bsky.social · 10h

I'm so sick of discourse from supposed allies about where trans people went wrong.

Where we "went wrong" is that billionaires spent unimaginably large sums to attack us repeatedly and major media outlets have spent a decade piling on.

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 8h

I don't think you can find a better example of the unwillingness to update priors because of political bias. They said the rallies would be radical anti-American hatefests. It was the the opposite, and on a massive and undeniable scale. Nevertheless...

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 9h

Tom Emmer calls Democrats "despicable" and says "your hate America rally is over"

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L @banalplay.bsky.social · 10h

Me: I could never run for office. Oppo would find out I was mean to a kid in sixth grade before feeling bad and becoming his friend.

Guy with a death's head tattoo: lmao check this out.

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Soraya Nadia McDonald @sorayanadiamcdonald.com · 1d

"ICE has also purchased spyware in recent weeks that enables it to remotely hack into smartphones and extract data, even if the phones are locked or communication is over encrypted apps."

ICE amps up its surveillance powers, targeting immigrants and antifa

Iris scanners, facial recognition apps, phone-hacking software and cellphone location data are among the agency’s recent technological purchases.

www.washingtonpost.com

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1d

it is funny how much studio executives dislike making money

Braddington @bradwhipple.bsky.social · 1d

whelp, I’ll be thinking about the Steven Soderbergh movie about Ben Solo until the day I die, I guess. we could’ve had it all.

apnews.com/article/adam...

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Disco Elysium Quotes @discoelysiumbot.bsky.social · 20h

YOU - No, I'll show you how a gentleman treats a doorbell! (Kiss the doorbell.)

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Schooley @schooley.bsky.social · 20h

The funny thing is if they weren’t obviously half-assing this thing they could have put up giant screens to hide the demolition. Disneyland does it all the time.

Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 20h

The Treasury Department instructed employees not to share to share photos of the demolition of parts of the White House’s East Wing

Exclusive | Treasury Tells Employees Not to Share Photos of White House Ballroom Construction

Images of the demolition of parts of the East Wing went viral on Monday, and Treasury’s headquarters next door to the White House has a front-row seat.

www.wsj.com

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spooky mental haunted house @jesseltaylor.bsky.social · 21h

twitter is making mainstream reporters dumber, and because they're all getting dumber together, none of them can recognize it and they actually think they're getting smarter

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Very 🫘 @veryvaluable.bsky.social · 22h

And the trees! Those really hurt.

(Photo source unknown because I’d saved it on my phone)

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Nash @radiodeadair.com · 21h

The main thing keeping Netanyahu out of Israeli court on corruption charges (which are unrelated to Gaza, somehow) is the ongoing conflict.

If the conflict stops, his head is back on the block.

So the conflict is never gonna stop.

shauna @goldengateblond.bsky.social · 21h

from the cover of Time magazine blaring HIS TRIUMPH to this in a week

NYT Breaking News
American officials said they were increasingly concerned that Benjamin Netanyahu could dismantle the Gaza peace deal.

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Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan.bsky.social · 1d

So, per reporting from Zeteo’s Asawin Suebsaeng, in today’s new ‘First Draft’ newsletter, Trump tried to get a newly-divorced Russ Vought, Project 2025 architect & now budget chief, laid at Mar-a-Lago.

The details are, ahem, as crude as you’d expect from Trump.
zeteo.com/p/trump-shit...

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RiotGrlErin @riotgrlerin.bsky.social · 21h

the pumpkin spice girls: thread

The Spice Girls wearing reds, green and darker fall colors.

Pumpkins that match the same aesthetic as The Spice Girls.

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Nathan Goldwag @goldwagnathan.bsky.social · 21h

The @nytimes.com decided last year what the story was; Trump II was the righteous punishment visited upon their interns and junior staffers and grandchildren for being so annoying about MeToo and BLM, and once they understood that and repented, they could have democracy back.

Paul Tree @paultree10.bsky.social · 1d

Just insane thing for a NYT editor to say publicly:

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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 22h

Bring this shit back with a vengeance, and then some

screenshot from the "How Can We Live Together" Boston Review article, reading "Not all overt bigots hid behind robes or discreet book clubs, however. Some of them were willing to skirt the PC rules: the disparaging reference to the ghetto, the thoughtful suggestion to go back to Africa, the occasional “hard R.”

But these were the exception. This kind of behavior got you suspended at school, in hot water with HR, disinvited from dinner parties. In other words, it was the kind of behavior that would make the Bertrand Russells of the world think better of association with you."

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NPR @npr.org · 22h

Dramatic photos show construction equipment tearing into the East Wing façade and windows, though the federal agency that oversees such projects has not approved President Trump's 90,000-square-foot, $250 million ballroom. n.pr/48AUON2

The White House starts demolishing part of the East Wing to build Trump's ballroom

Dramatic photos show construction equipment tearing into the East Wing façade and windows, though the federal agency that oversees such projects has not approved President Trump's 90,000-square-foot, $250 million ballroom.

n.pr

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Anna Bower @annabower.bsky.social · 1d

EXCLUSIVE: One Saturday afternoon in October, my phone lit up with a notification.

I glanced down at the message.

“Anna, Lindsey Halligan here,” it began.

So began my text exchange with the woman who is prosecuting the president's perceived political enemies.

www.lawfaremedia.org/article/anna...

"Anna, Lindsey Halligan Here."
Anna Bower
Monday, October 20, 2025, 5:40 PM
Share On: f X inK My Signal exchange with the interim U.S. attorney about
the Letitia James grand jury.

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Michael Lobel @mlobelart.bsky.social · Apr 2

I'm just a lowly art historian, but in moments like these I always think back to one early sign of Trump's wanton, pointless destructiveness: his demolition of the priceless & irreplaceable Art Deco relief sculptures on facade of the Bonwit Teller building, which he tore down to build Trump Tower

Relief sculpture of a lithe figure in a dancing-like pose

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Jonathan Edwards @jonathanreports.bsky.social · 1d

Scoop: Trump has started demolishing the White House's East Wing facade to build his ballroom. The president had claimed construction of the $250 million building wouldn’t ‘interfere’ with the existing White House structure. /W @ddiamond.bsky.social wapo.st/4hqBNiU

White House begins demolishing East Wing facade to build Trump’s ballroom

The president had claimed construction of the $250 million ballroom wouldn’t ‘interfere’ with the existing White House structure.

wapo.st

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