Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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David Burbach 🌹 @dburbach.bsky.social · 1d

There is no way this doesn't also imply that citizens are required to carry papers. If I get stopped while out for a walk or sitting on my porch, they'll take my word for it? What proof do I have I'm a citizen? None.

Other than my skin color of course, which is what underlies all this.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 1d

Wow, wow, wow. This has always been legally possible but the law has virtually never been enforced — and now this is the SECOND case I've heard of in the last month (first involving a person with a green card) of a noncitizen being charged for failure to carry their papers.

Gregory Pratt @royalpratt.bsky.social · 1d

NEWS: ICE gave a Rogers Park man a $130 ticket for not having his papers on him. They rounded him up last week and eventually let him go, but not without a fine that some critics say is un-American. Trump admin enforcing little-used law
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/13/i...

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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 1d

Again, every time this happens, we literally have no idea if the masked, plainclothes people are actual government agents, or private citizens acting in party-affiliated paramilitaries. The whole point of IDs & uniforms & no masks is that we know these things.

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Ian Boudreau @ianboudreau.com · 1d

Pretty sure I say this every Columbus Day, but getting hauled back to Spain for excessive brutality in 1500, just as the Inquisition was really getting fired up, is some genuinely Evil Guys Hall of Infamy material

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Peter @notalawyer.bsky.social · 1d

the actual story here, which the media never talks about, is that police in this country have become a discrete right-wing political operation. the story isn't about cops leaving (they're lying about that), it's about the police trying to exert influence over elections.

Mark Misoshnik 🏴 @misoshnik.bsky.social · 2d

Lmao is this supposed to be a bad thing?

A tweet from Bari Weiss that says “"It's shaken me to my core," a lieutenant said of Mamdani's unexpected victory in June. "The absolute dread I feel is palpable.
"
Today in @TheFP our @Olivia_Reingold talks to the cops who say they will walk if Zohran Mamdani is elected in November:”

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Andrew D Thaler @drandrewthaler.bsky.social · 1d

You don't have to judge Columbus by the standards of today. His tenure as governor of Hispaniola was so horrific that he was dragged back to Spain in chains to answer for his many crimes.

Plus he never set foot on any land that would ever be a part of the United States of America.

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Simon Lester @simonlester.com · 3d

"The Labor Department warned in an obscure document filed with the Federal Register last week that 'the near total cessation of the inflow of illegal aliens' is threatening 'the stability of domestic food production and prices for U.S. consumers.'”

Trump administration says immigration enforcement threatens higher food prices

U.S. farmers face labor shortages and potential food price hikes due to Trump’s immigration policy, the administration acknowledged in a Federal Registry document.

wapo.st

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Expedition Works @expeditionworks.bsky.social · 4d

Wikipedia says that the Chicago-NYC TD-2 system was still in use as late as 2013 (and possibly still active today, citation needed), with new transmitting equipment!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TD-2

TD-2 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 4d

When prices were going up under Biden there was a constant deluge of news stories about it because the media did not like Biden and wanted him to lose. Under Trump there is not a constant deluge of news stories about coffee prices because they like Trump and want him to win

delrayser @delrayser.bsky.social · 4d

everything is on fire these days, sure, but how is it that 50% of all news stories are not about how I just spent $20 on a bag of store brand coffee at fucking costco

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southpaw @nycsouthpaw.bsky.social · 4d

No money flowing to USAID and hardly any to PEPFAR despite their duly enacted funding; well north of twenty billion dollars being deployed for other weird hair autocrats. www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

The U.S. just bailed out Argentina, treasury secretary confirms

The U.S. Treasury has finalized a financial rescue of Argentina, including a currency swap arrangement with the country’s central bank.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · 4d

They want a fight.
They deserve a clowning.
bsky.app/profile/adam...

Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 4d

www.wweek.com/culture/2025...

Can you put into words what that purpose is? You and the frog have really become icons of this protest.

There’s been a nice overall whimsy that has shown up. The frog is amazing. We had a bunch of other inflatable people here last night, too. I saw people playing Twister the other day.

What they rely on is fear. So by coming out in an absurdist manner, it speaks to them, to some extent, that we’re actually not that afraid.

It also dismantles their narrative a little bit. When they try to describe this situation as “war-torn,” it becomes much harder to take them seriously when they have to post a video saying [U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security] Kristi Noem is up on the balcony staring over the Antifa Army and it’s, like, eight journalists and five protesters and one of them is in a chicken suit.

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Sharon Machlis @smachlis.bsky.social · 7d

This is a professor at Rutgers who teaches a class on the history of anti-fascism. He also teaches about human rights. He has received multiple death threats and been doxed. He is relocating to Europe for his safety. This is where we are in the US now. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

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Adam Bonica @adambonica.bsky.social · 5d

As the Supreme Court term begins, keep this framework in mind: Autocratic Legalism.

Instead of “rule of law” (law constrains the power), we get “rule by law” (law as a weapon for power).

Authoritarians usually have to install allies. Trump started his second term with that step already complete.

The only effective opposition is through the language of morality and documented harm—not legal technicalities that can be swept away with a 6–3 vote.” The text is centered on a neutral background, with “morality” and “documented harm” slightly emphasized to underscore the moral and empirical contrast with “legal technicalities.”

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Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 6d

Gonna be thinking about this lede for a minute.

(RNS) — Last month, the Rev. David Black stood in front of a Chicago-area U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility and spread his arms wide. Adorned in all black and wearing a clerical collar, the pastor looked up at a group of masked, heavily armed ICE agents on the roof and began to pray.

“I invited them to repentance,” Black, a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), said in an interview. “I basically offered an altar call. I invited them to come and receive that salvation, and be part of the kingdom that is coming.”

But when Black began to lower his arms a few seconds later, the agents responded to his spiritual plea by firing pepper balls, or chemical agents that cause eye irritation and respiratory distress, video footage shows. One struck Black in the head, exploding into a puff of white pepper smoke and forcing him to his knees. Fellow demonstrators rushed to his aid, and as the pastor rubbed his face in pain, the agents continued to fire.

“We could hear them laughing,” Black said.

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Chris Morran @themorrancave.bsky.social · 6d

NEW: As Linda McMahon guts the Dept. of Education, she’s operated in what she calls “a parallel universe” to radically shift how future kids will learn -- seeking to dismantle the public school system in favor of private and Christian schools or homeschooling.

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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Denise Wheeler @denisedwheeler.bsky.social · 6d

Reuters photographer Jonathan Ernst noticed that Bondi flipped open a file during the Senate hearing and he zoomed in.

Inside were her crib notes for attacking the senators.

The GOP now practicing Cliff's Notes Fascism

In other words, under oath Bondi was purely a performance.

Bondi senate hearing had a folder full of notes for attacking the senators

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TrustedReveler @trustedreveler.bsky.social · 6d

LA: we will fight you.

Chicago: we will fight you.

PDX: we will make you endure week after week of of improv theater.

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City Nolan @ndhapple.bsky.social · 7d

Between 140k city public school students having to live in shelter, 30-somethings having to have roommates and families getting pushed out you'd think there would be sufficient impetus to attack the housing crisis head on, but.

But.

But.

Boo!-per Lund @cooperlund.online · 7d

Every time this comes up I think about the people I know who had to leave the city for the suburbs when their kids got older because of cost and how they all were way happier having a kid here than there. We should all be able to raise kids here.

Berny Belvedere @bernybelvedere.bsky.social · 7d

fellas is it gay to live in a city

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Expedition Works @expeditionworks.bsky.social · 6d

It’s a waste of manpower, it’s an overreaction, and I can only conclude it’s being done to terrorize people.

Expedition Works @expeditionworks.bsky.social · 6d

ICE is using tactics designed for felony warrant arrests and narco factories against people who didn’t fill out a form, and against people who literally are doing the thing we asked them to do by showing up to immigration hearings.

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Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 9d

I’ve received multiple death threats + doxing (including my home address) directly following harassment from Turning Point USA, Jack Posobiec, Andy NGO, + Fox News which called me an antifa ‘financier.’

I have been forced to move my classes online.

If journalists want to talk, DM me or reply here.

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City Nolan @ndhapple.bsky.social · 6d

MONEY TRAIN TO THE GAME: "The MTA would have to spend at least $3 million in contracted union fees to provide the same special game-day service to Citi Field as Metro-North gives Yankee fans to go to the House that Ruth Built, data obtained by Streetsblog shows." nyc.streetsblog.org/2025/10/08/m...

MONEY TRAIN: How LIRR Unions 'Game' The System - Streetsblog New York City

An old work rule means that the MTA would have to pay millions of dollars just to provide a little extra service after special events like Mets games or the Ryder Cup.

nyc.streetsblog.org

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Elizabeth Lopatto @lopatto.bsky.social · 7d

please read my memo www.theverge.com/business/793...

Memo to Bari Weiss Re: CBS News: You’re doomed

Bari Weiss has sold her company, The Free Press, to manage the decline of broadcast news at CBS. How many ways can it go wrong?

www.theverge.com

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Sarah Posner @sarahposner.bsky.social · 7d

Lawless Russell Vought thinks he can nullify a law by deleting it from an FAQ

www.govexec.com/pay-benefits...

OMB deletes reference to law guaranteeing backpay to furloughed feds from shutdown guidance

An Office of Management and Budget FAQ document now states that only excepted employees forced to work without pay are guaranteed backpay at the conclusion of a lapse in appropriations.

www.govexec.com

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Emily Hamilton @ebwhamilton.bsky.social · 6d

Love this new report on buildings' relative fire safety from @alexhrwtz.bsky.social and Pew colleagues.

www.pew.org/en/research-...

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Louis Mirante @louismirante.bsky.social · 7d

Brazil built *4.5 million homes* with just their public housing program in just 9 years - Brazil has an economy slightly larger than the size of Northern California's. The entire housing economy, including private home construction, built probably 750k homes in Northern California during this time.

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