Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Sean Meredith

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 23h

Most Americans say Trump has improperly used his office to:
💠Punish those who say things he does not like (66%)
💠Encourage federal investigations of his political opponents (62%)
💠Enrich himself or his friends and family (61%)

new @pewresearch.org findings

Most Americans think Trump is trying to exercise more power than previous presidents

49% of U.S. adults say Trump is trying to exercise more presidential power than previous presidents and that this is bad for the country.

www.pewresearch.org

16 91 250

Sean Meredith @seanmeredith.bsky.social · 8h

He was about 100 feet tall in Ghostbusters.

Reposted by Sean Meredith

Costa Samaras @costasamaras.com · 10h

Picture how big the Hoover Dam is. An absolute unit. The Hoover Dam has a power capacity of 2 gigawatts (GW).

The solar farm that the Admin just cancelled could have produces 6.2 GW of power. That's more than 3 Hoover Dams.

jael holzman @jael.bsky.social · 10h

SCOOP: The Bureau of Land Management says the largest solar project in Nevada — the Esmeralda 7 mega-farm — has been canceled

The news was quietly dropped via a sudden website update with no public word from any of the companies involved or a statement from the agency

@heatmap.news

Esmeralda 7 Solar Project Has Been Canceled, BLM Says

It would have delivered a gargantuan 6.2 gigawatts of power.

heatmap.news

82 1.6K 3.2K

Reposted by Sean Meredith

Aster Vérité @aster-verite.bsky.social · 1d

1/
🧵
Froggie vs. ICE: The asymmetrical symbol of a failing authoritarian state.

You’ve seen the video.
An inflatable frog at a Portland protest.
Unarmed. Unbothered. Unapologetically absurd.
And ICE panics.

They fire pepper spray up a frog caricature's ass.

The frog wins.

3 44 170

Reposted by Sean Meredith

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 2d

#WarRavagedPortland

1.3K 11K 36K

Reposted by Sean Meredith

Juno Rylee Schultz @junoryleejournalism.com · 1d

David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)

SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems...
SIMON: What?
SHAPIRO: ...Or saying...
SIMON: You imagine that?
SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over.
SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level.
SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this.
SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.

310 8K 25K

Reposted by Sean Meredith

Megan O'Matz @megomatz.bsky.social · 1d

The Trump administration is working to dramatically expand school choice, moving kids to a range of private & religious schools or homeschooling. Ultimately, what percentage of children would remain in public schools? A Moms for Liberty co-founder told me: “I hope zero. I hope to get to zero.”

These Activists Want to Dismantle Public Schools. Now They Run the Education Department.

Under Trump, the Department of Education has been bringing in activists hostile to public schools. It could mean a new era of private and religious schools boosted by tax dollars — and the end of publ...

www.propublica.org

24 96 190

Reposted by Sean Meredith

Simon Rosenberg @simonwdc.bsky.social · 17h

We are witnessing the most lawless behavior by a leader in American history, just daily, extraordinary abuses of power. National Democrats must speak out in a loud and clear voice against Trump's escalating authoritarianism. It is time now.

Anna Bower @annabower.bsky.social · 18h

The Guardian reports that Letitia James has been indicted

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

53 650 2.2K

Reposted by Sean Meredith

Justin Baragona @justinbaragona.bsky.social · 1d

Trump hints that he's going to give Andy Ngo, Pizzagate Jack, and others at the antifa roundtable the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

"You have been amazing, you have been brave. You are real patriots. At some point, we will look into rewarding you with very important medals and honors."

40 24 96

Reposted by Sean Meredith

Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 1d

Posobiec isn't a nazi in some generic rhetorical sense of having fascistic impulses or simply being far-right. He is a full-blown Hitler-loving Jew-hating mask-off literal capital-N Nazi, with a longstanding public record to match.

Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 1d

"Antifa has been around in various iterations for almost 100 years in some instances, going back to the Weimar Republic in Germany."

- Jack Posobiec at Trump's roundtable on antifa

18 290 810

Reposted by Sean Meredith

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1d

genuinely think they are feeding him AI videos

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Trump: "I don't know what could be worse than Portland. You don't even have stores anymore. They don't even put glass up. They put plywood on their windows."

530 2.4K 14K

Reposted by Sean Meredith

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 1d

Again, if you live in Portland, just strolling around the city to verify the (checks notes) existence of store windows would do wonders for counteracting the delusions of President Livia Soprano.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Trump: "I don't know what could be worse than Portland. You don't even have stores anymore. They don't even put glass up. They put plywood on their windows."

41 120 700

Reposted by Sean Meredith

Alex Wenzel @alexwenzel.bsky.social · 1d

Weirdly enough, I think this works. No one is more insecure than a new ICE agent. They want to be the blonde guy in DHS’s AI Nazi posting so badly. Instead, they’ll be guarding indistinguishable suburban warehouse #16361 while inflated frogs and dinosaurs thrust in their face all day every day.

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 2d

#WarRavagedPortland

15 170 670

Reposted by Sean Meredith

Kashana @kashana.blacksky.app · 1d

See, people think AI is useless, but without it this dude would have had to imagine burning down an entire neighborhood all by himself

Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 1d

The suspect accused of igniting the fire that destroyed LA's Pacific Palisades neighborhood allegedly used a ChatGPT prompt to show "a burning forest and a crowd fleeing from it," months prior, officials say

Man arrested, faces federal charge in connection with Palisades Fire: DOJ

The fire caused widespread destruction in Los Angeles County and killed a dozen people earlier this year.

abcnews.go.com

4 61 280

Reposted by Sean Meredith

Laura Lopez @ohdearz.bsky.social · 2d

Valuable info about the Physics Nobel Prize today from Prof. Joseph Barranco at SFSU on Martinis and Devoret being a grad student and postdoc in Clarke's lab at UC Berkeley & Clark and Devoret being immigrants. "California *public* education made this happen. Immigration made this happen." ⚛️

Joseph Barranco posted on social media: Go Bears! Nobel Prize in Physics goes to 3 physicists studying mesoscopic quantum phenomena... Work was done in the 1980s in UC Berkeley Professor John Clarke's lab with his graduate student John Martinis and postdoctoral fellow Michel Devoret... all 3 share the Nobel Prize. Must also point out that both Clarke and Devoret are immigrants from the UK and France, respectively. All 3 are pioneers in the race to build the most powerful quantum supercomputers. California *public* education made this happen. Immigration made this happen.

1 130 390

Reposted by Sean Meredith

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

SCHIFF: Was it true when the White House press secretary denied that Homan took the money?

BONDI: I was not in office, I was not confirmed, when that was handled

SCHIFF: Did he take the money?

BONDI: That happened prior to my confirmation

200 720 2.5K

Sean Meredith @seanmeredith.bsky.social · 2d

"for the most part, we’re going to take care of our people. There are some people that really don’t deserve to be taken care of, and we’ll take care of them in a different way.”
www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

Federal workers not entitled to back pay after shutdown, budget office claims

Federal workers may not be entitled to back pay after the government shutdown ends, the Trump administration’s budget office wrote in a new draft memo obtained by The Washington Post, ratcheting up te...

www.washingtonpost.com

Reposted by Sean Meredith

Philip Gourevitch @pgourevitch.bsky.social · 3d

“Are they being persecuted? No . Is there a campaign against them? No. Are Trump’s allegations about the Afrikaners true? No.”

www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

Afrikaners Are Doing Fine, Despite What Trump Says

Welcome to Next Africa, a twice-weekly newsletter on where the continent stands now — and where it’s headed. Sign up here to have it delivered to your email.Donald Trump’s assertion that White Afrikan...

www.bloomberg.com

9 42

Reposted by Sean Meredith

emily @soupmuse.bsky.social · 3d

the reason:

5 82 340

Reposted by Sean Meredith

Qasim Rashid, Esq. @qasimrashid.com · 3d

3 MAGA extremists have re-intro'd a bill that allows South Carolina to execute women who receive an abortion. If you haven't heard about S 323, it's because corporate media has completely ignored it.

Here's the overview, the sponsors, & how to fight back:
www.qasimrashid.com/p/s-carolina...

S. Carolina RE-Intros Bill To Kill Women For Getting An Abortion

Here's what's in the bill, why it is so dangerous, and the meaningful steps you can take to fight back, support women's health, and help block this bill from becoming law

www.qasimrashid.com

63 610 770

Reposted by Sean Meredith

Robert Mackey @robertmackey.bsky.social · 3d

The Oregon Republican Party tried to help Donald Trump make the case for military intervention in Portland with an image of a fiery protest — but since Portland is calm, they had to fabricate one by merging old photos of police in Ecuador and protesters in Brazil www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...