Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Anya Kamenetz @anya1anya.bsky.social · 13h

= "a reactionary version of Christianity with aggressive ethno-nationalist sentiment. ...defined by a sense of grievance – by a perception that “our” country (“real America”) is being taken away from “us” (white Christians)."

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Anya Kamenetz @anya1anya.bsky.social · 14h

Yes. This episode of the Daily had me yelling and spitting. Vought is a Christian nationalist extremist, not a small govt conservative who happens to be Christian.

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 23h

We need to talk about Russell Vought – But Properly

Why certain mainstream outlets insist on sanitizing Vought as a devout “small government” conservative – and what actually animates his war against pluralistic democracy.

Some thoughts from my new piece:

🧵

We need to talk about Russell Vought – But Properly

Why certain mainstream outlets insist on sanitizing Vought as a devout “small government” conservative – and what actually animates his war against pluralistic democracy

steady.page

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Kate Schapira @kateschapira.bsky.social · 1d

Tonight, with @climatena.bsky.social & the Climate Mobilization Project, learn how training in mental health care can support mutual aid, survival organizing, & local resilience! You might like it! www.eventbrite.com/e/community-...

Community climate resilience: Integrating mental health skills & mutual aid

The Climate Mobilization Project will describe their work at the intersection of mutual aid and climate action + more.

www.eventbrite.com

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Jacob Soboroff @jacobsoboroff.bsky.social · 19h

“Military occupation doesn’t make our city safer. Resources and investment makes our city safer.” thank you Bri and all the other protestors who took the time to speak with me last night in Chicago.

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Pete Dominick @petedominick.bsky.social · 1d

I host a daily podcast. There are no ads. I recap the news with clips and talk to the smartest people around.

Today I have Con law prof @espinsegall.bsky.social

standupwithpete.libsyn.com/1455-eric-se...

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Anya Kamenetz @anya1anya.bsky.social · 19h

Very true. However the new Mamdani profile in the New Yorker tells a convincing story of how his Palestine politics met the moment and got him where he is now: what many people see as the future of the Democrats

Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 1d

I don't think the most important thing with Gaza, Israel-Palestine, or the Middle East more broadly is what they say about US domestic politics.

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New York Communities for Change @nychange.bsky.social · 23h

Local Law 97 of 2019 is rocking. As of 2023 data, 92% of buildings were already below the law’s initial annual pollution limits, which started in 2024. We will see data on 2024 soon, and it’ll be close to 💯

Huge improvement!

www.urbangreencouncil.org/what-we-do/e...

Local Law 97 progress - Urban Green Council

How close are NYC's buildings to meeting their LL97 carbon limits?

www.urbangreencouncil.org

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StrictlyChristo 🦋🇺🇦🌻❌👑 @strictlychristo.bsky.social · 1d

Portland is so good at trolling these fascists.

I ❤️ Portland

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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 1d

repost this if an editor has ever saved you from yourself

violent alien @blipstress.bsky.social · 1d

An actual hot take: Too many authors are afraid of editors watering down their voice or whatever and not afraid enough of editors letting you put any old slop on the page.

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Anya Kamenetz @anya1anya.bsky.social · 1d

So many are teens and tweens. The Anxious Generation? F that! This is the courage generation

Ashley Lynch ✂️🎞️ @ashleylynch.bsky.social · 2d

Any trans person who begins their transition today is exhibiting more courage than most people will in their entire lives.

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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 1d

Altman claims the company didn’t anticipate people not wanting their deepfakes to say “offensive things or things that they find deeply problematic,” which sounds like a lie but is also indicative of how they recklessly release tech into the world.

OpenAI wasn’t expecting Sora’s copyright drama

It felt “more different to images than people expected.”

www.theverge.com

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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 1d

The Plot to Enslave America

Chris Morran @themorrancave.bsky.social · 1d

Those influencing Trump education policy aren't shy about wanting to eradicate public schools.

Asked what % of kids she imagines should be in public schools, Tiffany Justice -- Moms for Liberty cofounder, now with Heritage Foundation -- told @propublica.org

“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

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Elizabeth Wrigley-Field @wrigleyfield.bsky.social · 1d

“The greatest weapon that the forces of regime change possess is the fear of inevitability...

The best defense against this weapon is solidarity among groups who disagree ferociously on many questions, but who agree on the need to keep America democratic…“

Deva Woodly @devawo.bsky.social · 1d

@himself.bsky.social talking sense, as usual. Notably: “The administration would have played its cards differently if it had a stronger hand.”

Opinion | You Beat Trumpism by Banding Together. It’s as Hard and as Simple as That.

www.nytimes.com

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Anya Kamenetz @anya1anya.bsky.social · 2d

how we should see economics doughnuteconomics.org/tools/the-ev...

The Evolving Doughnut | DEAL

A report by Kate Raworth on the Doughnut's evolution since 2012, with the latest Doughnut diagrams available to download

doughnuteconomics.org

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Adam Keiper @adamkeiper.com · 2d

NEW: "I don’t like sending out 'emergency' newsletters, but I’ve had my eye on the situation in Chicago all day....This moment has elevated the crisis so that it is no longer just a conflict between the federal government and a state, but between two states."
www.thebulwark.com/p/emergency-...

Emergency Triad: The Chicago Rubicon and What Comes Next

We aren’t at the worst-case scenario yet. But if you squint, you can see it looming out there, just over the horizon.

www.thebulwark.com

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emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 2d

Turns out Corey Lewandowski is sabotaging Stephen Miller's dragnet.

www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

Eight current and former officials at ICE and the Department of Homeland Security told me that they blame Corey Lewandowski, the longtime Trump-world figure who is a “special government employee” at DHS and functions as the unofficial chief of staff to Secretary Kristi Noem. Lewandowski has operated as a gatekeeper for Noem, especially since June, when the department implemented a new policy requiring her to sign off on any contract exceeding $100,000.

Read: Fast times at Immigration and Customs Enforcement

With 260,000 employees and an annual budget of $62 billion, DHS has thousands of contracts in that range—including things like Coast Guard vessels, Border Patrol equipment, and TSA software—and deals with private-prison companies that have facilities with tens of thousands of beds that they say could be operational within weeks. Ever since Trump was elected, companies like the Geo Group and CoreCivic have been quickly expanding and promising their investors fat profits.

DHS’s new contracting rules have produced “chaos,” according to the current and former officials I spoke with, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters or feared reprisals from the administration. Most of them support the president and his mass-deportation plan, but told me they were dismayed that ICE seemed to be losing altitude right after securing the funding they’d always dreamed of.

“There’s extreme frustration that the president’s agenda—when it comes to ICE beds, and therefore deportations—is not going to happen,” one former DHS official told me. “The White House worked for months to get the reconciliation bill over the finish line. Why did you just lobby Congress for months saying you needed the money if you don’t intend to spend it?”

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Anya Kamenetz @anya1anya.bsky.social · 2d

The TSA uniquely holds the power to push Trump out of office with a national strike..
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/u...

Flight Delays Begin as Air Traffic Staffing Shortages Worsen

www.nytimes.com

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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 3d

that said, if you need a comment about this shit, my contact info is in my bio.

Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 3d

i could write a tome about how fucking embarrassing it is for journalism that someone as morally bankrupt as bari weiss has ascended to the highest levels of money and power by tickling trump's balls but instead i'm going to keep covering the people hurt most by his terror and giving them a voice.

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Anya Kamenetz @anya1anya.bsky.social · 3d

Attention parents/teachers of NYC middle and high school students! I'm looking for positive anecdotes of how kids are spending their time now that phones are banned in school. Are they spinning vinyl? Playing cards? Braiding friendship bracelets? Hit me up! For a story in New York Mag.

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Preorder Read This When Things Fall Apart @mskellymhayes.bsky.social · 4d

I have a full day today, but I woke up early to put this edition of my newsletter together because I need you all to have this rundown of what we've been up against this week in Chicago as the federal assault on our city continues. To ignore these developments would be a damning mistake for us all.

Must-Reads and the War on Chicago

"Chicagoans will not be a conquered people."

organizingmythoughts.org

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Cristian Farias @cristianfarias.com · 4d

This video of Chicagoans intervening to save a man from being abducted off the streets by ICE is making the rounds on Instagram.

Community action works.

Source: www.instagram.com/reel/DPZL2AL...

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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 5d

“Advocates are particularly concerned over the facilities’ use of Pfas gas, or f-gas, which can be potent greenhouse gases, and may mean datacenters’ climate impact is worse than previously thought. Other f-gases turn into a type of dangerous compound that is rapidly accumulating across the globe.”

Advocates raise alarm over Pfas pollution from datacenters amid AI boom

Tech companies’ use of Pfas gas at facilities may mean datacenters’ climate impact is worse than previously thought

www.theguardian.com

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Martina Igini @martinaigini.bsky.social · 7d

Spain saw 3,800 additional deaths (!) this year amid a rise in extreme, deadly heat.

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Extreme Summer Heat Caused an 87% Rise in Deaths in Spain

Spain’s scorching summer resulted in more than 3,800 additional deaths this year as extreme heat becomes increasingly deadly, according to the country’s health ministry.

www.bloomberg.com

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Anya Kamenetz @anya1anya.bsky.social · 5d

This is not true at my kid's competitive public school in NYC. In 8th and 9th: Black Boy, The Chosen, Catcher and the Rye, Frankenstein, Picture of Dorian Gray

Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 5d

Given what I've heard from undergrads, it seems a lot of K-12 schools no longer assign novels, especially outside AP classes. Instead, it's all anthologies or even digital anthologies (like Savvas offers) that come with read-aloud options so that kids never have to engage directly with the text.

Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 5d

I think we’re really going to have to do a lot more of this. A massive deprogramming so that people can read more than ten words at a time without anxiety.

www.thetimes.com/uk/education...?

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Pete Sikora @petesikora.bsky.social · 6d

Truth is precious and important. It’s not image-making and misleading people to grease a path.

@bradlander.bsky.social must deliver on his promise of major action on climate.

@nyccomptroller.bsky.social wields power. Use it.

Cc: @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social

Protesters raise signs directed at Lander during his image-building but empty climate week event. This event and week would have been the obvious moment for him to deliver on his promise, but he has refused to do so. That blew a private promise of a deadline of summer or at the latest September. There’s still October, November and December for him to deliver. He should! For our part, we’re not going to quietly pretend all is fine and dandy when it’s not. We’re in a low trust society now and politicians like Lander breaking their promises is part of it. WE keep OUR word.

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