Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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ElieNYC @elienyc.bsky.social · 1h

The whites are literally arguing it's literally *unconstitutional* if they're not OVERREPRESNTED in Congress.

Imani Gandy Corn 🎃 @angryblacklady.blacksky.app · 1h

Just so everyone is clear, the main issue in the Supreme Court voting rights case tomorrow is whether it's racist against white people to enforce the Voting Rights Act.

I'm dead serious. We live in incredibly stupid times.

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Crash Course @thecrashcourse.bsky.social · 1d

Coming soon to Crash Course Native American History: Lily Gladstone! Before she was an Oscar nominee for her role in Killers of the Flower Moon, Lily hosted Crash Course Film Production. We asked Lily to come back and guest host our episode about Native women, which comes out tomorrow!

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Paul Duane 🥔 @paulduane.bsky.social · 1h

Writing is how poor people, as long as they have something to say that continues to be meaningful, can live forever. Rich people too, obviously, but they rarely have that much of interest to say.

John Wiswell @wiswell.bsky.social · 2h

Tell me your most life-affirming literary opinion.

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🎃 Matthew Jack-o'-lantern 🎃 @awalrusdarkly.bsky.social · 1h

Right after Prince died, D'Angelo went on THE TONIGHT SHOW and performed "Sometimes It Snows In April" with Princess. It remains one of the most beautiful, emotionally raw things I've ever heard. RIP.

(Audio-only at this link, but it's still worth hearing.)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeV7...

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booqatana @joqatana.bsky.social · 56m

Unsolicited Nick pic

Black & white photo of the late lamented Nick Gravenites, wearing sunglasses and beret.

Last time I saw him was at a benefit show in Berkeley and we were hanging out on the sidewalk and he looks around and says “where did all these altekakkers come from?”

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Jo Walton @bluejo.bsky.social · 1h

Now Everybody's Perfect is available for preorder on bookshop.org! Coming in June next year to a great local bookstore near you! bookshop.org/p/books/ever...

Everybody's Perfect

Check out Everybody's Perfect - From Hugo award-winning author Jo Walton comes a cozy Venetian fantasy of extraordinary warmth and appeal! The Serenissima is built from mist and belie...

bookshop.org

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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 15h

Taft wrote some bad history in a mostly forgotten 1926 case about firing a local postmaster, Scalia turbocharged that in a cranky dissent in 1988 that no other justice joined, and now it's a Roberts Court article of faith even though it has zero textual basis and is built on pseudohistory.

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1d

I read Caleb Nelson's piece on the removal power and I was taken with a reference he makes in the conclusion.

When the First Congress confronted the same ambiguities, more than one member warned against interpreting the Constitution in the expectation that all Presidents would have the sterling character of George Washington. The current Supreme Court may likewise see itself as interpreting the Constitution for the ages, and perhaps some of the Justices take comfort in the idea that future Presidents will not all have the character of Donald Trump. But the future is not guaranteed; a President bent on vengeful, destructive, and lawless behavior can do lasting damage to our norms and institutions. As one member of Congress argued in 1789, we should not gravitate toward interpretations of the Constitution that “legaliz[e] the full exertion of a tyrannical disposition.”

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Jay Willis @jaywillis.net · 1h

Genuinely amazing that Drake lost the Kendrick Lamar beef so badly that he filed a harebrained lawsuit that ended with a federal judge calling the song that destroyed his career "catchy" and a "cultural sensation."

Federal Judge Declares Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” Too Awesome to Be Defamatory

Apparently, Drake decided that losing in the court of public opinion was not humiliating enough.

ballsandstrikes.substack.com

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elias isquith @eliasisquith.blog · 2h

this is extremely smart and should be the checkbox all future D candidates have to clear to be taken seriously

Ritchie Torres, the Bronx Democrat and frequent critic of progressives, said Mamdani is “a once-in-a-generation communicator” who has mastered what he called the “three threes”: A candidate in today’s day and age needs to be able to explain ideas in a 30-second vertical social media video, a three-minute television hit and a three-hour long-form podcast.

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Karl Bode @karlbode.com · 1h

Trump is destroying U.S. cybersecurity defenses after the Chinese just successfully conducted one of the biggest and most successful hacks on U.S. telecom infrastructure in history

Trumpism is indistinguishable from a foreign attack

worse, because of hollow faith and patriotism rhetoric

Eric Geller @ericjgeller.com · 1h

The Trump admin is laying off nearly 200 CISA employees & forcing dozens more to take new jobs at other agencies (sometimes across the country) or quit.

Morale & productivity are sinking at the already-depleted agency, further jeopardizing US cybersecurity.

My story w/ new details: bit.ly/3KLoptn

Layoffs, reassignments further deplete CISA

Some CISA staffers have been pushed out, while others are being told to move across the country for jobs outside their skill sets.

www.cybersecuritydive.com

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Ed Burmila @edburmila.bsky.social · 1h

In 2010, Morocco attempted to assert sovereignty in Western Sahara by displaying a 20-ton, 60,000 sq meter Moroccan flag in the town of Dakhla.

The only red flag larger than this is speaking admiringly of Josh Hawley.

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Mike Black @mikeblack114.bsky.social · 14h

since there's reports on social media of money hitting accounts worth reiterating that this is illegal and unconstitutional as shit, it's not a close question, and while I don't expect anyone on H/SASC or H/SAC will do anything, anyone performing this 'reprogramming' should face criminal penalties

Mike Black @mikeblack114.bsky.social · 1d

It's also worth reiterating that absent this reprogramming authority being written into law it would be not just illegal but flatly unconstitutional for DoD to expend money in any fashion not explicitly specified (by both type/use and quantity) by Congress in an appropriations bill

Mike Black @mikeblack114.bsky.social · 1d

Since we're getting a crash course in DoD reprogramming authority, CRS has a good report on it linked below. Some important points:

Congress gives DoD reprogramming authority because when you're dealing with a trillion dollars, some stuff is probably going to need to be changed over 12 months

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Dave Awl @daveawl.bsky.social · 1h

Gift link: some Chicago businesses now sporting signs with an alligator and butterfly design. Designer says:

“ ... because the butterfly is often known to fearlessly land on an alligator’s snout ... a butterfly is a universal icon of migration worldwide facing a much more intimidating predator.”

Cafes, restaurants across Chicago put up signs barring immigration agents

For restaurant and cafe workers, many of whom are immigrants, the looming threat of unannounced visits by ICE has created anxiety and uncertainty about their future.

www.chicagotribune.com

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Judd Legum @juddlegum.bsky.social · 5h

1. Nations that have bestowed lavish gifts to President Trump — or enriched Trump and his family by striking business deals with Trump-connected companies — have later received extraordinary benefits from the Trump administration.

Quid Pro Presidency

Nations that have bestowed lavish gifts to President Trump — or enriched Trump and his family by striking business deals with Trump-connected companies — have later received extraordinary benefits…

popular.info

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hookland.bsky.social @hookland.bsky.social · 1h

No wraith way, no corpse lane is ever less than ghost-crowded. Yet just as roads to market or the races are thronged on certain days, as we approach Allhallowtide they become congested by spirits. From distant villages to the boneyard gates and lychgate termini a rush of spectres walk. – #CLNolan

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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 1h

"a test"? you mean...a violation?

AP: Israel plans to halve aid into Gaza over slow return of dead hostages, a test for the Gaza ceasefire

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Imani Gandy Corn 🎃 @angryblacklady.blacksky.app · 1h

Just so everyone is clear, the main issue in the Supreme Court voting rights case tomorrow is whether it's racist against white people to enforce the Voting Rights Act.

I'm dead serious. We live in incredibly stupid times.

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Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 1h

Truly abhorrent and a mockery of the rule of law that Emil Bove is a federal judge.

Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · 2h

JUST IN: The 3rd Circuit *denies* a push by national GOP to reconsider ruling on misdated mail ballots in Pa.

Judge Emil Bove may have cast his first vote here in dissent of the decision -- and plans to write about it later. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

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Christopher Brown @christopherbrown.bsky.social · 1h

About that time we went looking for ghost lights and found a different kind of specter—fun piece to get to write for Texas Highways: texashighways.com/culture/comi...

Coming Face-to-Face With the Chupacabra

On a trip to see the Marfa Lights, another out-of-this-world encounter steals the show

texashighways.com

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Blue Heron Farm @blueheronfarm.bsky.social · 1h

This man buried his mother in an unmarked grave at his dad's golf course

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Alt US Forest Service @altusfs.altgov.info · 14h

Seems unfair to timber folks to make them keep working without pay.

April Ehrlich @aprilehrlich.bsky.social · 3d

The Forest Service says staff that organize timber sales are essential, so logging national forests continues through the shutdown, even as hundreds of thousands of other workers are furloughed. www.opb.org/article/2025...

Logging in national forests in Oregon continues, despite government shutdown

The U.S. Forest Service plans to auction off trees in the Deschutes, Wallowa-Whitman and Umatilla national forests by the end of the month.

www.opb.org

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Olga Nesterova @onestpress.onestnetwork.com · 1h

I told you yesterday in video and written format - there is no peace deal.

Hamas said they won’t disarm - I showed you the video of their leader.
Israeli defense minister tweeted about “cleansing Gaza” - showed you the tweet.

Now you have both sides blaming each other ⬇️

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Shiv Ramdas Mens Rice Activist @nameshiv.bsky.social · 1h

TIL that the aggro af wasps you see in late summer are worker wasps who have finished their nest tasks and are all out seeking sweet stuff and raising hell for the locals with the last days of their lives while waiting to die, wasps are basically just the insect version of retired Brits in Spain

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utopia deferred @utopia-defer.red · 2h

This is a sidebar but this is a form of manufactured consent of a more broader variety.

What is happening here is that elites enjoy finding everyday actions of the peons (you and me) that we insist a right to enjoy and, instead of taking a serious account of fault, find basis to ridicule.

The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 2h

Tariffs have rapidly increased the price of coffee—a drink with almost no nutritional value and lots of functional substitutes. Yet coffee may also be the one thing Americans can’t live without, @elcush.bsky.social writes:

The Drink That Americans Won’t Give Up Without a Fight

Coffee has almost no nutritional value and lots of substitutes. It’s also, apparently, too important to lose.

bit.ly

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The Public Domain Review @publicdomainrev.bsky.social · 3h

After complaints about Timothy Dexter's A Pickle for the Knowing Ones (1797) being entirely devoid of punctuation, in future editions the eccentric businessman supplied a supplemental page so that people “may peper and solt as they please”: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/dexter-pickle

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