Scott L. Greer | Lightnews

Scott L Greer @scottlgreer.bsky.social · 32m

House Republicans!

Scott L Greer @scottlgreer.bsky.social · 32m

Why reviving Venezuela’s oil industry will prove to be a tall order for Trump

Why reviving Venezuela's oil industry will prove to be a tall order for Trump

“We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and s...

thebulletin.org

Scott L Greer @scottlgreer.bsky.social · 36m

wow, an actual sensible argument that Brexit and Trump might jointly lead to something unequivocally good!

Trump may be the beginning of the end for ‘enshittification’ – this is our chance to make tech good again | Cory Doctorow

The US president is weaponising tech, but his tariffs and Brexit provide a surprising opportunity to gain back digital control of our lives, says science fiction author, activist and journalist Cory D...

www.theguardian.com

Scott L Greer @scottlgreer.bsky.social · 36m

guess who said this?

"Investments in global health programming are a fundamental pillar of America’s national security agenda. [global health] makes America safer... improving health infrastructure to bolster prevention, preparedness, and response….It makes American stronger and more prosperous"

House appropriators advance funding bill codifying USAID closure with more favorable global health funding than White House request

This month, the House Appropriations Committee advanced out of committee a funding bill for fiscal year 2026 that was a mixed bag—while the bill unfortunately codifies the closure of the US Agency for...

www.ghtcoalition.org

John Cluverius @johncluverius.bsky.social · 59m

@mirandayaver.bsky.social getting featured on the *lead* story on CBS Sunday Morning.

the story is great, Prof. Yaver is great, and on a platform that an average of 5.19 million normies watch.

academics who do public engagement *have* to hunt where the ducks are.

State of denial: How insurance companies impact health care today

YouTube video by CBS Sunday Morning

www.youtube.com

Miranda Yaver @mirandayaver.bsky.social · 1h

Here is the CBS Sunday Morning piece for which I was interviewed about findings from my book Coverage Denied. Health insurance barriers ration health care by inconvenience, imposing hurdles to get prescribed care with administratively burdensome appeals many can’t navigate. youtu.be/SRPOoPDN-7w?...

State of denial: How insurance companies impact health care today

YouTube video by CBS Sunday Morning

youtu.be

Peter Baker @peterbakernyt.bsky.social · 2h

Trump's appellate judges have formed a nearly united phalanx to defend his agenda from legal challenges. How often they ruled for him in 2025:

Trump appointees: 92%
Other Republican appointees: 68%
Democratic appointees: 27%

@schwartzesque.bsky.social Emma Schartz www.nytimes.com/2026/01/11/u...

Trump’s ‘Superstar’ Appellate Judges Have Voted 133 to 12 in His Favor

www.nytimes.com

Scott L Greer @scottlgreer.bsky.social · 14h

“Although the list caused anguish among environmental groups, it did not go as far as originally envisaged on trade and economic matters after the administration quietly dropped the World Trade Organization and the OECD from its list of potential targets last year”

US also stayed in IMO

Donald Trump orders mass US pullout from international organisations

Bodies targeted include key UN climate treaty and those promoting development, democracy and human rights

www.ft.com

David S. Bernstein @dbernstein.bsky.social · 15h

The Dept of Labor’s X feed gets less attention but really brings the fascist vibes

Scott L Greer @scottlgreer.bsky.social · 16h

Wtf

“This week’s Presidential Memorandum demonstrated that America is no longer accepting the broken status quo, that this nation is prepared to lead, as it always has, and that sometimes true leadership means knowing when to walk away.”

Secretary of Defense Rock @sodrock.bsky.social · 18h

I feel like it’s an underreported story that the state department has its own substack and is putting out increasingly batshit stuff

Ending the Charade of Wasteful International Organizations

Author: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio

statedept.substack.com

Scott L Greer @scottlgreer.bsky.social · 16h

this is what polarisation looks like in practice. The US has a severe lack of cross-cutting institutions, and that's partly because it's very hard to share a club, church, anything with people who disagree with you so profoundly on vital personal issues.

Scott L Greer @scottlgreer.bsky.social · 17h

This is a really nice synthesis of international and domestic politics that might explain how domestic political dysfunction turns a demolition derby in international politics

The Unconstrained Future of World Order: The Assault on Democratic Constraint and Implications for US Global Leadership | International Organization | Cambridge Core

The Unconstrained Future of World Order: The Assault on Democratic Constraint and Implications for US Global Leadership - Volume 79 Issue S1

www.cambridge.org

Scott L Greer @scottlgreer.bsky.social · 17h

though a whole lot of them are... fascinated... with the Nazis a/o the German military.

Scott L Greer @scottlgreer.bsky.social · 17h

Must be bad news, for users and for the security & privacy of US patient data.

"Major EHR player Oracle reacted positively to the news. Executive Vice President and General Manager of Oracle Health and Life Sciences, Seema Verma, was the administrator of CMS during the first Trump administration."

HHS' tech office proposes to gut and reset health IT policy

Editor's note: This is a breaking news story that may be updated. | The rule proposes to eliminate 34 out of 60 requirements for certified health IT in an effort to deregulate the health IT industry. ...

www.fiercehealthcare.com

Jacob Harris @jacobharr.is · 17h

Thanks to a FOIAed spreadsheet from @jasonleopold.bsky.social at www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet..., I have updated the DOGE Tracker with a lot more info on who was getting paid.

dogetrack.info/people/paid-...

The myth of everybody working for free is a lie. Many were appointed GS-15 max salary

Data Reveals Details About DOGE, Government Hiring in 2025

The IRS hired 1,313 employees in January 2025. Over the next two months the agency laid off 11,000 workers, or about 11% of its workforce. Additionally, the data identifies employees tied to DOGE.

www.bloomberg.com

Secretary of Defense Rock @sodrock.bsky.social · 18h

I feel like it’s an underreported story that the state department has its own substack and is putting out increasingly batshit stuff

Ending the Charade of Wasteful International Organizations

Author: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio

statedept.substack.com

Scott L Greer @scottlgreer.bsky.social · 18h

I think we often want to think that people are cynical supervillains, but it's much easier for smart people to delude themselves, and it's easiest of all to just hire not very bright people with not very considered values and accept profound mediocrity as the price of your lickspittles' fidelity.

Scott L Greer @scottlgreer.bsky.social · 21h

Lots of good lines

“a hallmark of CBS News editor-in-chief and careerlong opinion journalist Weiss’ relentless rhetorical style is to posit that, whatever one’s political commitments, we can all come together to agree that hers are the right ones”

Joe Adalian @tvmojoe.bsky.social · 1d

Another banger from Variety's Daniel D'Addario, who is owning the Kill Tony beat (Dokoupil, not the podcast.)

"Dokoupil has attempted to position himself as something more than anchor: He seems to be, in his mind, the main character of the news."

Read and share: variety.com/2026/tv/colu...

Scott L Greer @scottlgreer.bsky.social · 18h

this is the slow reassertion of the laws of gravity in politics- faction fighting in a declining king's court, the inevitable lame duck status of a second term US president. The question remains whether those laws work quickly enough to prevent even bigger disasters than we have seen this year

Peter Baker @peterbakernyt.bsky.social · 18h

Dozens of Republicans broke with Trump this week on war powers, Obamacare subsidies and veto override votes, suggesting that he may not enjoy quite as free a hand as he has become accustomed to heading into his second year, writes Carl Hulse. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/09/u...

As Election Year Opens, G.O.P. Seeks Some Distance From Trump

www.nytimes.com

Scott L Greer @scottlgreer.bsky.social · 18h

it's like "viewpoint diversity" in academia: if a certain share of voters, or elites, believe something and your job is to build consensus, then you have to find a way to make that belief sound normal even if by your putative standards (evidence, logic, shared values) it's not normal or valid.

Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 18h

Starting to feel like it's an explicit job requirement for political pundits not to admit the most consequential trend in American politics of the last 40 years.

Jody Rosen @jodyrosen.bsky.social · 23h

Thank you TCW for this instant classic of Harper’s Letter sophistry, explaining that the categories "right" & "left" are unhelpful in understanding a campaign of kidnappings & assassinations undertaken by an ultra-right wing secret police force at the behest of an ultra-right wing political regime

Scott L Greer @scottlgreer.bsky.social · 18h

"There are an enormous number of baroque neuroses and elaborate purity fetishes of various sorts shaping the discourse around nutrition in our culture... RFK Jr. himself is Exhibit A in regard to these tendencies"

Grading RFK Jr. on the Harvard College curve - Lawyers, Guns & Money

Andrew Gelman highlights the very many absurdities in this Emily Oster NYT op-ed, praising RFK Jr. for not advocating that Americans sprinkle plutonium on their cornflakes: If you actually read the li...

www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com

Peter Baker @peterbakernyt.bsky.social · 18h

Dozens of Republicans broke with Trump this week on war powers, Obamacare subsidies and veto override votes, suggesting that he may not enjoy quite as free a hand as he has become accustomed to heading into his second year, writes Carl Hulse. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/09/u...

As Election Year Opens, G.O.P. Seeks Some Distance From Trump

www.nytimes.com

Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 18h

Starting to feel like it's an explicit job requirement for political pundits not to admit the most consequential trend in American politics of the last 40 years.

Jody Rosen @jodyrosen.bsky.social · 23h

Thank you TCW for this instant classic of Harper’s Letter sophistry, explaining that the categories "right" & "left" are unhelpful in understanding a campaign of kidnappings & assassinations undertaken by an ultra-right wing secret police force at the behest of an ultra-right wing political regime

Scott L Greer @scottlgreer.bsky.social · 20h

The House health research budget is much less draconian than the WH (Steady state without widening access) so that’s good

Scott L Greer @scottlgreer.bsky.social · 21h

Lots of good lines

“a hallmark of CBS News editor-in-chief and careerlong opinion journalist Weiss’ relentless rhetorical style is to posit that, whatever one’s political commitments, we can all come together to agree that hers are the right ones”

Joe Adalian @tvmojoe.bsky.social · 1d

Another banger from Variety's Daniel D'Addario, who is owning the Kill Tony beat (Dokoupil, not the podcast.)

"Dokoupil has attempted to position himself as something more than anchor: He seems to be, in his mind, the main character of the news."

Read and share: variety.com/2026/tv/colu...

Tony Dokoupil Is Making ‘CBS Evening News’ All About Tony Dokoupil

CBS Evening News is now all about Tony Dokoupil's ego

variety.com

Scott L Greer @scottlgreer.bsky.social · 22h

We gave it a bash and applying the theories to American police worked depressingly well (paywall, lmk if you want a copy)

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

journals.sagepub.com

Deb Houry @drdebhoury.bsky.social · 22h

20 out of 25 CIO director positions at CDC are vacant and filled by actings (or eliminated), just in the past year via CDC Data Project www.cdcdataproject.org/leadership-c...

Scott L Greer @scottlgreer.bsky.social · 22h

The New Yorker has acquitted itself very well over the last decade

Kevin Morris @kevintmorris.bsky.social · 22h

I am re-reading the January 6th report and, specifically, David Remnick's intro to it. It's remarkable to be reminded of real-time accounts of how differently this could have gone. I recommend revisiting it:
www.newyorker.com/news/america...

The Devastating New History of the January 6th Insurrection

The House report describes both a catastrophe and a way forward.

www.newyorker.com

Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 22h

Alaska officials gave false info to American Samoans, telling them they can vote. (They can’t, due to a unique status.)

Now, the state is threatening them with years in prison, part of GOP’s voting fraud panic.

@burness.bsky.social spent months reporting the story; spend some of your w-e with it.

Americans by Name, Punished for Believing It - Bolts

In a small Alaska town, American Samoans face prosecution for voting in the only country they’ve ever known. They live in a limbo, created by colonial expansion, that now confuses even public official...

boltsmag.org

Scott L Greer @scottlgreer.bsky.social · 22h

Feels good to retweet NYT work with approval. This is excellent work. Especially the Upshot- maybe someday it can redeem itself from its awful COVID-19 editorializing.

The Upshot @upshot.nytimes.com · 1d

For some agencies, the cuts have hollowed out decades-old functions of the federal government.

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

220,000 Fewer Workers: How Trump’s Cuts Affected Every Federal Agency (Gift Article)

New data offers the first clear view of the impact of the buyouts and firings.

www.nytimes.com

Kevin Morris @kevintmorris.bsky.social · 22h

I am re-reading the January 6th report and, specifically, David Remnick's intro to it. It's remarkable to be reminded of real-time accounts of how differently this could have gone. I recommend revisiting it:
www.newyorker.com/news/america...

The Devastating New History of the January 6th Insurrection

The House report describes both a catastrophe and a way forward.

www.newyorker.com

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