Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

James Downie @jamescdownie.bsky.social · 2h

Common Charley Crockett W.

Chron.com @chron.com · 3h

🎸 Texas country singer Charley Crockett just took a stand against President Trump’s renaming of the Gulf of Mexico, and Texans are divided: bit.ly/3IN7W7j

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James Downie @jamescdownie.bsky.social · 3h

Many people are saying RFK's latest "theory" is antisemitic. That's misleading. It's also Islamophobic!

(www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion...)

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James Downie @jamescdownie.bsky.social · 3h

"With her baby in her placenta"

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 4h

RFK Jr: "Somebody showed me a TikTok video of a pregnant woman at 8 months pregnant -- she's an associate professor at the Columbia Medical School -- and she is saying 'F Trump' and gobbling Tylenol with her baby in her placenta. The level of Trump Derangement Syndrome is now a pathology."

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James Downie @jamescdownie.bsky.social · 3h

Yeah, that's definitely how science works...

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 4h

RFK Jr on Tylenol and autism: "It is not proof. We're doing the studies to make the proof."

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James Downie @jamescdownie.bsky.social · 4h

And for the famous writers who stopped using an editor: yes, the rest of us can tell.

violent alien @blipstress.bsky.social · 22h

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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Steve Mullis @stevemullis.net · 1d

The documentary "Stripped for Parts: American Journalism on the Brink," about how Hedge fund Alden Global Capital is gobbling up newspapers across America and gutting them, is available to watch on PBS.

Stripped for Parts: American Journalism on the Brink

A handful of journalists rebel against a hedge fund that is gutting newspapers nationwide.

www.pbs.org

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Brad Heath @bradheath.bsky.social · 9h

President Donald Trump's threatened crackdown on the finances and activities of liberal non-profits and groups opposed to his agenda is a multi-agency effort with top White House aide Stephen Miller playing a central role, according to officials.

www.reuters.com/legal/govern...

www.reuters.com

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 9h

yeah, trump has made very clear that he doesn’t think black people deserve to be in jobs of influence! www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/u...

Trump Fires Black Officials From an Overwhelmingly White Administration

www.nytimes.com

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Jacob Soboroff @jacobsoboroff.bsky.social · 20h

Michigan Avenue right now.

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James Downie @jamescdownie.bsky.social · 20h

Bobby/Barry Bonds?

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Sean O’Kane @seanokane.bsky.social · 21h

WSJ is reporting that the Truth Social post where Trump told Pam Bondi to prosecute Comey *really was supposed to be a private message*

www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Inside the Justice Department Where the President Calls the Shots

The president has executed a wholesale transformation of the Justice Department, taking control in ways he could have only dreamed of in his first term.

www.wsj.com

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James Downie @jamescdownie.bsky.social · 23h

In definitely unrelated news, we know that:

– Trump seems to have thought 2020 footage of Portland was from this year.
– The president has been fooled by AI videos of *himself*
– AI videos of protesters are going viral among MAGA supporters.

Gee I wonder what "movies" might be duping him now.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Trump on Portland: "It's like the movies you see for the kids, I guess not only the kids, adults also, where you have these bombed out cities and these bombed out people. It's like, worse than that."

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Anthony L. Fisher @anthonylfisher.bsky.social · 1d

ICE went after @davidjbier.bsky.social on X, blaming him for assaults on agents.

In a new @msnbc.com column, Bier argues DHS' own reckless policies are to blame.

Opinion | ICE blamed me for assaults on its agents — but its own polices are to blame

Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s targets don’t know why they’re being approached or what their rights are. The result is chaos.

www.msnbc.com

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Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 1d

"I have to say that if I was able to create tens of billions of dollars of stock market value just by announcing deals, and then capture a lot of that value for myself, I would do that, and to the exclusion of most other activities."

OpenAI Is Good at Deals

OpenAI/AMD, Antifraud Co., M&A scoops, World Cup tickets, Gary Gensler’s cell phone and Citadel Insecurities.

www.bloomberg.com

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Rick Hasen @rickhasen.bsky.social · 1d

My New One at MSNBC Opinion on How the Supreme Court Seems Poised to Kill Off What Remains of the Voting Rights Act While Few Pay Attention–With Implications for 2026 Redistricting www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb... @msnbc.com

How the Supreme Court could aid the GOP's redistricting games

If the court rules quickly enough in a key voting rights case, it could allow yet another round of partisan redistricting before the 2026 midterms.

www.msnbc.com

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Benjy Sarlin @benjysarlin.bsky.social · 1d

In related news, let me know if you or someone you know has any interesting work opportunities!

Dave Jorgenson @davejorgenson.bsky.social · 1d

The Post laid off seemingly the remaining of their liberal-leaning staff members on Opinion last Thursday, when some of them were observing Yom Kippur.

from @oliverdarcy.bsky.social for Status
status.news/p/washington-post-opinion-cuts-adam-oneal

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James Downie @jamescdownie.bsky.social · 1d

"A group of conservative donors spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to develop a rightwing version of late-night talkshows" with conservative commentator Eric Metaxas as host.

"Across the four pilots, Metaxas’s comedic bent was noticeable only by its absence." www.theguardian.com/media/2025/o...

A rightwing late-night show may have bombed – but the funding behind it is no laughing matter

Conservative donors spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to make a rightwing Stephen Colbert-style talkshow

www.theguardian.com

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David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 1d

So this is funny.
The administration just issued a rule slashing foreign agricultural worker wages. And to justify it, in a public filing, Trump's Labor Department alleges that Trump's immigration enforcement has devastated the Ag workforce and caused a "risk of supply shock-induced food shortages."

Trump Labor Department Says His Immigration Raids Are Causing a Food Crisis

In a filing in the Federal Register, the Labor Department argues there are “immediate dangers to the American food supply” due to a lack of migrant agricultural workers.

prospect.org

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James Downie @jamescdownie.bsky.social · 1d

I have never allowed YouTube to use my watch history or otherwise personalize recommendations, and the default algorithm has two consistent features: 1) recommending the same videos again and again; and 2) recommending at least two pieces of right-wing gateway slop, no matter the video I'm watching.

Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 1d

Hot on the heels of bribing Trump with $24.5 million, YouTube has ramped up shoveling right-wing gateway slop into recommendations. YouTube has no reason to believe I'm interested but even more of this is now nestled between videos actually relevant to my viewing history.

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ryan cooper @ryanlcooper.com · 1d

this was really hard to read. my son is almost exactly the same age as the kid in here that Trump and Musk deliberately starved to death apnews.com/article/myan...

Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said “no one has died" because of his government’s decision to gut its foreign aid program.

apnews.com

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James Downie @jamescdownie.bsky.social · 1d

In unrelated news, here's @juliesulabor.bsky.social writing for @msnbc.com about how Amazon mistreats its package handlers and delivery drivers: www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

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James Downie @jamescdownie.bsky.social · 1d

"I normally pay don’t pay much attention to gold, which doesn’t play an important role in the modern economy. But I believe that the recent runup in gold prices is telling us something — namely, that the world is losing faith in America." -- @pkrugman.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...

Ingots We Trust

Are soaring gold prices telling us something important?

open.substack.com

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1d

thank you brett kavanaugh!

Daniel Knowles @dlknowles.bsky.social · 1d

Good reporting on the South Shore raid from South Side weekly here.

Confirms one thing I was told but didn't put in my own piece because I didn't have a second source and it seemed too insane: border agents segregated arrested residents by race

southsideweekly.com/federal-agen...

Federal Agents Storm South Shore Building, Detaining Families and Children

Families were woken by flashbangs and helicopters as hundreds of federal agents raided their homes. Days later, neighbors are still searching for the missing.

southsideweekly.com

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Denise Wheeler @denisedwheeler.bsky.social · 1d

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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Renee DiResta @noupside.bsky.social · 2d

“Who was president in 2020?” is the question of our time

Senator Jim Banks V
@SenatorBanks
Follow g..
The 2020 Census was a fraud. The Biden admin used a shady "privacy" formula that scrambled the data and miscounted 14 states.
It included illegal immigrants and handed
Democrats extra seats. Americans deserve a fair count and l'm fighting to fix it.
Zinited Statcs SScnate
MASHNORON DEYNN
October 6, 2025
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Socretary
U.S. Department of Commerce Washington, DXC 20230
Dear Secretary Lutaick:
I urge you to investigate and correct erroes from the 2020 Census that handed disproportionntd political power to Democrats and illogal alicns. The Census Burcau adoptod a now and opaque
voting districts. As preparod by the Biden administration, the 2020 Censas roports miscountod the population of fourteen states, ' wrongly allocating six congressional scats aod Electoral
xx conwuu tmora uy, toc taroro tu mot đoo tnn Cunu lc pung t imber of votine districts. And the reoorts de aniovety inchaded ilecnl nhens widhout track those aliens' citiz enship status, If left uncorrected, these erroes will coetinue diluting the political power of American citizens.
Consus data plays a crucial role in allocating political roprescntation and goverment funding
Under the Constitution, cach state gets Congressional represcotutives and Electoeal College votes- based on "the whole number of persons" within the state." The number of persoes is in
tum clabaabod by a consttubocalty-mandalcd dcccacaal ccavas. Pcual agcco nely on census data to allocate billions of dollars in federal funding, much of which hinges ee opulation. And states use consus data to deaw congrossicnal and voting districts, »hich the
The it eiy of tie soaren alie n tor dur at ce hor inc ae oam toy ee n
nght wilbout statsica ly signilicant ciroo.
Diffcrcntial privacy is opaque and liable to mistakcn count totals. Sure cnough, the 2020 Ccnsus ovarocunted the noculation in cicht states and undercounted it in six." Tihe most extrcmi andercount was Arkansas, at 5.04%, and the larg…

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