Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Nancy Flanagan 🎼 @nancyflanagan.bsky.social · 4h

What MAGA wants – to erode the entire concept of facts.

Despite the right-wing pressure on news outlets, some do a good job of battling disinformation & exposing Donald Trump’s power grabs. Others do a terrible job. Letter grades on some major players. www.stopthepresses.news/p/im-handing...

I’m handing out pro-democracy grades to the media

The Guardian gets an A, the NY Times gets a C, CBS gets an F

www.stopthepresses.news

1 3

Reposted by Nancy Flanagan 🎼

Angry @angrystaffer.bsky.social · 7h

That’s crazy. I wonder what happened in January

440 3.8K 12K

Nancy Flanagan 🎼 @nancyflanagan.bsky.social · 5h

Ed. Dept. Tells More Than 250 Civil Rights Staff They’ve Been Laid Off. Together with the layoffs finalized Tuesday, the Education Department stands to lose about 730 employees by the end of the year—about 30% of its remaining staff. www.edweek.org/policy-polit...

Ed. Dept. Tells More Than 250 Civil Rights Staff They've Been Laid Off

The layoffs come just days after the agency began a new round of staff reductions during the shutdown.

www.edweek.org

2 1

Nancy Flanagan 🎼 @nancyflanagan.bsky.social · 5h

Politico uncovered thousands of leaked messages of the Young Republicans Group leaders praising Hitler, joking about gas chambers, and rejoicing in their endorsements from Trump.

And what did their leaders do? Nothing. Not a single word. www.thegodpodcast.com/p/damn-donal...

Damn Donald Trump For Inspiring YoungNazis

They learned it by watching him.

www.thegodpodcast.com

1 4

Nancy Flanagan 🎼 @nancyflanagan.bsky.social · 5h

'What do you do in an America where reality is fake and the lie is the reality? What do you do when an authoritarian government insists that they and they alone know the truth? What do you do when people want to believe their own lies so much they lie to themselves?' www.patreon.com/posts/best-w...

The best way to counter Trump’s lies? Frogs 🐸 | Men Yell at Me by Lyz Lenz

www.patreon.com

2 1

Reposted by Nancy Flanagan 🎼

Meryl Streep Fighter @baileysanz.bsky.social · 18h

Is Chicago naming a snow plow again this year? Because I’m going to get ahead of it and suggest Fuck Ice

11 160 820

Reposted by Nancy Flanagan 🎼

Mueller, She Wrote @muellershewrote.com · 18h

This isn’t a peace plan. It’s a ceasefire. Why is the media calling it a peace plan?

1.4K 3.6K 17K

Nancy Flanagan 🎼 @nancyflanagan.bsky.social · 1d

Me, too. Setting up a patronage army vs. actual military scenario.

1 1

Reposted by Nancy Flanagan 🎼

The Lincoln Project @lincolnproject.us · 1d

US Soybean farmer: This is caused by this administration, and it’s having a negative major consequence on not only farmers, but also on American factory workers..."

370 970 2.6K

Reposted by Nancy Flanagan 🎼

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Q: We've seen images out of Chicago of federal agents shooting faith leaders with pepper balls and arresting journalists. Where's the limit for you on what's acceptable conduct by federal agents?

MIKE JOHNSON: I've not seen them cross the line yet.

3.5K 4.8K 12K

Nancy Flanagan 🎼 @nancyflanagan.bsky.social · 1d

When a Propaganda Stunt Collides with People Who Still Have a Spine. Kristi Noem’s TSA video blaming Democrats for the shutdown was blocked by airports across the country. Here’s why that matters...and what it proves about America’s remaining guardrails. www.jackhopkinsnow.com/p/when-a-pro...

When a Propaganda Stunt Collides with People Who Still Have a Spine

Kristi Noem’s TSA video blaming Democrats for the shutdown was blocked by airports across the country. Here’s why that matters...and what it proves about America’s remaining guardrails

www.jackhopkinsnow.com

1

Nancy Flanagan 🎼 @nancyflanagan.bsky.social · 1d

So what’s the big deal about those two little words, and why does it give the game away? Well, because it’s an insanely sweeping, ahistorical, unconstitutional expansion of the powers of the president. #PlenaryAuthority www.publicnotice.co/p/stephen-mi...

Stephen Miller's radically bogus idea of "plenary authority"

This is not how the Constitution works.

www.publicnotice.co

1 1 2

Nancy Flanagan 🎼 @nancyflanagan.bsky.social · 1d

The Cost of Trump’s Politicization of the Military.
They’ve crossed one line after another since January - and we must not become numb to the mounting damage to our military and national security. petebuttigieg.substack.com/p/the-cost-o...

The Cost of Trump’s Politicization of the Military

They’ve crossed one line after another since January - and we must not become numb to the mounting damage to our military and national security.

petebuttigieg.substack.com

1 1 1

Nancy Flanagan 🎼 @nancyflanagan.bsky.social · 1d

I’m deeply concerned that 2 opaque industries are creating giant bubbles on verge of bursting.

One is AI. My immediate concern is that AI is becoming a financial bubble whose bursting will harm lots of innocent people. Crypto is my 2nd bubble concern.
robertreich.substack.com/p/beware-the...

Beware the Oligarch's AI Bubble

They’re likely to burst.

robertreich.substack.com

1 1

Nancy Flanagan 🎼 @nancyflanagan.bsky.social · 1d

Nations that have bestowed lavish gifts to Trump have later received extraordinary benefits from Trump administration. The apparent link between personal benefits and official acts has fundamentally changed the nature of the most powerful political office on Earth. popular.info/p/quid-pro-p...

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 fro...

popular.info

2 1

Reposted by Nancy Flanagan 🎼

Leelanau Dems @leelanaudemocrats.bsky.social · 1d

Michigan’s Slotkin raises alarm in Senate over secret Trump-era terrorist group designation list. Slotkin called new policy enacted by Trump “unprecedented” & “straight out of an authoritarian playbook, where the President gets to play judge, jury and executioner” michiganadvance.com/2025/10/13/m...

Michigan’s Slotkin raises alarm in Senate over secret Trump-era terrorist group designation list • Michigan Advance

Updated at 6:03 p.m. U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Holly) called a new policy enacted by President Donald Trump “unprecedented” and “straight out of an authoritarian playbook, where the President gets t...

michiganadvance.com

1 5

Nancy Flanagan 🎼 @nancyflanagan.bsky.social · 1d

To be clear, we are already past the point where it’s only people in the U.S. without legal immigration status who are at risk. joycevance.substack.com/p/are-we-the...

Are We the Nazis Now?

How do we meet this moment?

joycevance.substack.com

1 1

Nancy Flanagan 🎼 @nancyflanagan.bsky.social · 1d

When historians describe how Nazi Germany became a dictatorship, they don’t start with the camps. They start with coordination — Gleichschaltung — the process by which every institution in Germany “aligned” itself with the will of the regime. thecycle.substack.com/p/coordinati...

Coordination the American Way:

Inside Trump’s Plan to Turn the U.S. Government into a Weapon Against Us

thecycle.substack.com

1 2

Reposted by Nancy Flanagan 🎼

Hope @4thepeace.bsky.social · 1d

26 110 310

Nancy Flanagan 🎼 @nancyflanagan.bsky.social · 1d

Headline of the day:

Arkansas: 88% of Students Who Use Vouchers Never Attended Public Schools

And it's not just Arkansas.
dianeravitch.net/2025/10/14/a...

Arkansas: 88% of Students Who Use Vouchers Never Attended Public Schools

Long ago, back in the 1990s, the idea of vouchers was proposed as a brand new idea. Its advocates said that vouchers would “save poor kids trapped in failing public schools.” They prese…

dianeravitch.net

4 6

Reposted by Nancy Flanagan 🎼

Mueller, She Wrote @muellershewrote.com · 1d

Wait. We get paid?

Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 2d

Sean Duffy says the No Kings protests this Saturday are “really frustrating” because they are all paid Antifa people.

800 900 5.3K

Nancy Flanagan 🎼 @nancyflanagan.bsky.social · 1d

Where does progress come frm? In addition to inherent creative power of humankind, progress is nurtured by education, creativity & curiosity turning knowledge into progressive action: Machines. Ideas. Institutions. Literature & art. Maybe even better govt.

teacherinastrangeland.blog/2025/10/13/p...

“Progressive” Schools

I’m old enough to remember Ronald Reagan hosting General Electric Theater, on Sunday nights, when he would look sincerely into the camera and say “General Electric, where progress is our most impor…

teacherinastrangeland.blog

2 3

Nancy Flanagan 🎼 @nancyflanagan.bsky.social · 1d

Sean Duffy, Sec of Transportation says we can expect airport delays to get much worse soon: “When you travel though, we will slow you down. We will cancel flights. If we don’t have the controllers necessary to keep you safe, we slow it down. And that’s what you see with those delays.”

2 1

Reposted by Nancy Flanagan 🎼

Republicans Against Trumpism @rpsagainsttrump.bsky.social · 1d

Chris Christie: “Thie is no longer, the Department of Justice, is no longer the premier prosecuting office in America. What it is now is a capo regime who goes out and executes hits when directed by the Don to do so. That’s what it is.”

760 6.1K 20K

Reposted by Nancy Flanagan 🎼

Nancy Flanagan 🎼 @nancyflanagan.bsky.social · 1d

Schools are among the most conventional & cautious institutions on the planet, subject to pressures & opinions frm a wide range of (often clueless) critics. And likely headed by someone who adamantly does not want to get phone calls from honked-off parents. teacherinastrangeland.blog/2025/10/13/p...

“Progressive” Schools

I’m old enough to remember Ronald Reagan hosting General Electric Theater, on Sunday nights, when he would look sincerely into the camera and say “General Electric, where progress is our most impor…

teacherinastrangeland.blog

2 1