Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 2h

youtu.be/SlPhMPnQ58k?...

Maroon 5 - Memories (Official Video)

YouTube video by Maroon5VEVO

youtu.be

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 2h

Always loved that one. But I did go to high school with all those guys.

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 3h

Yeah, that one I had already heard. I didn't mind it as much.

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 3h

Until this moment, I had never heard that Maroon 5 song that's basically just Pachelbel's Canon. Feels a little uncanny valley to me. (Lots of pop songs are kind of inspired by Pachelbel, but this is much more just a reworking.)

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Reposted by Sam Bagenstos

Michael🎃🎃🎃🎃👻👻👻👻 @ballstonbakfiets.bsky.social · 7h

Someone needs to ask, "how does it save money to lay off people who aren't receiving paychecks?"

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 7h

BRENNAN: CBS confirmed the Trump administration rescinded the layoffs of CDC scientists. Some were involved with the federal measles response. How does a mistake like this happen?

VANCE: The govt shutdown inevitably leads to some chaos. It happened because of Schumer

B: But this was a WH decision

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bmaz @bmaz.bsky.social · 9h

Everything is a grift with these dirtbags:

Chris Morran @themorrancave.bsky.social · 10h

At least half a dozen companies vying for some of the $45B allocated for immigration detention work hired a friend of border czar Tom Homan because that friend (who previously had Homan on his payroll) led them to believe his connections to Homan would help their chances of scoring a contract.

Trading on Tom Homan: Inside the Push to Cash in on the Trump Administration’s Deportation Campaign

A Pennsylvania businessman who had Tom Homan on his payroll led companies to believe his connections to the future border czar could help advance their bids for government work, industry executives sa...

www.propublica.org

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 8h

a key thing about vought — and all of these guys — is that they have a totally top down and hierarchical vision of the world. they believe that the cultural changes they hate can be turned off by destroying the federal government because they can’t imagine that they emerged bottom-up in society

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 8h

What he’s railing against is a profound shift in culture, status… He’s obsessed with the idea that America is controlled by a leftist “ruling elite” - but “elite” isn’t defined socio-economically or by political power, it means something like: Getting to define “real America” and who gets to belong.

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 9h

If you want to read 20,000 or so more words on how Trump has assaulted Congress’s power of the purse, and how Congress should fight back, I’ve got the law review article for you: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

The Crisis of Appropriations Law

<p><span>Appropriations law is a unique body of federal law. Appropriations law imposes its own somewhat baroque set of statutory interpretation principle

papers.ssrn.com

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 9h

Must-read piece as always from @citizencohn.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...

The OTHER Democratic Demand for Reopening the Government

It’s about stopping Donald Trump and Russ Vought—and it can’t happen soon enough.

open.substack.com

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David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 23h

The end of federal enforcement of special ed laws. Some states - including MN - will likely be ok. But a lot of disabled kids in a lot of states are going to lose the education that federal law and decades of jurisprudence say they are owed.

Education Department wipes out special ed office in shutdown layoffs, union says

The Education Department laid off nearly everyone at the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.

www.usatoday.com

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Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 1d

“The administration did not like that CDC data did not support their narrative, so they got rid of them. They didn’t like that CDC policy groups would not rubber stamp their unscientific ideas, so they got rid of them”.

The damage to the CDC is “beyond repair”.

‘The damage is beyond repair’: The CDC faces another round of deep staff cuts | CNN

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suffered another round of deep staff cuts late Friday, with disease detectives, outbreak forecasters, policy and data offices among those impacted, ac...

edition.cnn.com

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Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 1d

Per CDC source: At internal leadership meeting this afternoon, it was shared that 1,257 people were RIF'd at CDC. Number may not be final. Apparently, chief of staff was unaware that RIFs were going to occur so not clear who is making decisions. (Short 🧵)

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Sara Partridge, Ph.D. @sarapartridge.bsky.social · 1d

There are reports that the *entire* office of special education at the US Dept of Education has been cut. These hardworking folks ensure kids with disabilities get equal access to a quality education.

America’s children deserve better than this.

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Bloomberg News @bloomberg.com · 1d

HUD staffers who investigate claims of housing discrimination received layoff notices at field offices across the US.

HUD Issues Layoff Notices, Targeting Fair Housing Staff With Deep Cuts

Fair housing staffers who investigate claims of housing discrimination at field offices nationwide were among the hundreds of HUD staffers who received layoff notices.

bloom.bg

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 1d

What @angierasmussen.bsky.social said. open.substack.com/pub/rasmusse...

The Death of Public Health

Another Friday night massacre, but this time it's not just an essential federal public health agency that will die

open.substack.com

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Matthew Stiegler @matthewstiegler.bsky.social · 1d

Roberts is presiding over, and driving, a stunning collapse in faith in the U.S. Supreme Court, not just among the public, but among federal judges.

What a failure. The Titanic captain of chief justices.

Murshed Zaheed @murshedz.bsky.social · 1d

“More than three dozen federal judges have told The New York Times that the Supreme Court’s flurry of brief, opaque emergency orders in cases related to the Trump administration have left them confused about how to proceed in those matters and are hurting the judiciary’s image with the public.”

Federal Judges, Warning of ‘Judicial Crisis,’ Fault Supreme Court’s Emergency Orders

www.nytimes.com

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Asia Russell @asia-ilse.bsky.social · 1d

The arsonist Russ Vought, currently at the wheel of the federal government, is taking away what hope we have of public health in the US and around the world. That is his aim—these illegal firings are just the start: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/u...

Trump Administration Lays Off Dozens of C.D.C. Officials

www.nytimes.com

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Tyler King @tyleraking.com · 1d

The leadership of the measles outbreak response was fired in the RIF spree while RFK JR attempts to completely dismantle measles vaccine access for children.

Measles (Rubeola)
MENU V
As of October 7, 2025, a total of 1,563 confirmed* measles cases were reported in the United States. Among these, 1,542
measles cases were reported by 42 jurisdictions: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, lowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York City, New York State, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. A total of 21 measles cases were reported among international visitors to the U.S.
There have been 44 outbreaks** reported in 2025, and 87% of confirmed cases (1,355 of 1,563) are outbreak-associated. For comparison, 16 outbreaks were reported during 2024 and 69% of cases (198 of 285) were outbreak-associated.

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 1d

Same day that the US announced a $20 billion bailout of Argentina that will benefit Trump's political allies and donors.

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 1d

CNN reporting that 4,000 federal employees were fired on Friday, in HHS, Education, Energy, HUD, Homeland Security, Patent and Trademark Office, EPA.
www.cnn.com/2025/10/10/p...

Trump administration lays off thousands of federal workers during government shutdown | CNN Politics

More than 4,000 federal employees received layoff notices Friday as part of the Trump administration’s broad effort to reshape the government while it remains shutdown, according to a court filing Fri...

www.cnn.com

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 1d

Trump, Vought, Millet, RFK — all of these folks treat anyone outside of their circle as nonpersons, whose interests and even lives are irrelevant except to the extent they help the Trump crowd achieve its ends. If that’s not evil, I don’t know what is.

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 1d

It’s considered impolite to use language like this, but “evil” is the best word for what these folks are doing. It’s bad enough to screw over workers to attack political enemies. But here, doing so will literally kill people and lead to avoidable disease.

open.substack.com/pub/insideme...

BREAKING NEWS: CDC employees terminated in apparent Friday night massacre.

The Trump administration is using the shutdown to further weaken the our national public health infrastructure.

open.substack.com

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 1d

Yep. Important agenda item.

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 1d

These guys have gotten incredibly rich by fleecing the government with subpar tech that was designed for rentseeking rather than performance. A smart Dem agenda item would be to build internal tech capacity. The fact that it would punish these guys is just a silver lining.

Mike Masnick @mmasnick.bsky.social · 1d

Being a billionaire must really fuck with your mind. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/u...

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Congresswoman Gwen Moore @repgwenmoore.bsky.social · 2d

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 2d

Mood.

Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 2d

“So we fight on just the same. With Dylan Thomas, we refuse to go quietly into that good night, but rather rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Or, as another poet put it, ‘Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.’”

open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...

Is This What ‘Late-Stage Democracy’ Looks Like?

What if the Constitution *is* a suicide pact?

open.substack.com

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Todd Wolfson @proftwolf.bsky.social · 2d

I am proud to say that MIT has rejected Trump's poison compact. MIT President Sally Kornbluth: "Therefore, with respect, we cannot support the proposed approach to addressing the issues facing higher education."
@aaup.org @aft.org @higheredlabor.bsky.social @uaw.org
links.mit.edu/nl3/N5Jy2cKq...

Regarding the Compact

links.mit.edu

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