Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Opinion | Peace in Trump’s Time — Except Here

Scratched Tooth @keencritic.bsky.social · 7m

Mo knows:

"Trump seems oblivious to the paradox of enforcing peace abroad and disrupting it badly at home, of soothing violence overseas and inflaming it here."

. . . .

"The contradiction is hard to square. It’s not going to win our president a peace prize."

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/o...

Federal Judges, Warning of ‘Judicial Crisis,’ Fault Supreme Court’s Emergency Orders

Scratched Tooth @keencritic.bsky.social · 13m

Most judges--even, as it happens, Trump-appointees--are not stupid. Most justices of the Supreme Court are. Andcthat's charitable: they might just be evil.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/u...

Ancient fish species makes historic comeback in Missouri rivers

Reposted by Scratched Tooth

Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 1d

The lake sturgeon (a 100-year-living, 90-kg relic from the age of dinosaurs) is returning to Missouri’s rivers after near-extinction from dams and pollution. The revival of a keystone species and signalling broader recovery of the Mississippi basin’s river systems.
buff.ly/NJFBX6f
#ShareGoodNewsToo

The Missouri Department of Conservation reported that lake sturgeon are spawning in large numbers.

buff.ly

2 52 190

Scratched Tooth @keencritic.bsky.social · 2d

I have no childhood Red Sox influence to explain my discomfort with Yankee fans, but there it is: if the Mets aren't around, my NY baseball loyalty is nil.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/o...

Opinion | I Love Watching Yankees Fans Suffer

Opinion | He Believes America Should Be a Theocracy. He Says His Influence Is Growing.

2 7

Scratched Tooth @keencritic.bsky.social · 2d

Wow. And not in a good way.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/o...

Opinion | Why Are the Democrats Increasing Inequality?

2

Scratched Tooth @keencritic.bsky.social · 2d

And it's not *just* screens.

Scratched Tooth @keencritic.bsky.social · 2d

I really like it when Brooks shares progressive opinions, and really hate it when he takes Dems to task.

But here he has us dead to rights: while left-wing adults are far better educated, on the whole, than right-wing ones, among the K-12 crowd, Dem states are falling well behind in education.

Opinion | Why Are the Democrats Increasing Inequality?

Scratched Tooth @keencritic.bsky.social · 2d

I really like it when Brooks shares progressive opinions, and really hate it when he takes Dems to task.

But here he has us dead to rights: while left-wing adults are far better educated, on the whole, than right-wing ones, among the K-12 crowd, Dem states are falling well behind in education.

Scratched Tooth @keencritic.bsky.social · 2d

"And getting Trump to realize what made him effective in the Middle East — governing by addition, not division — would actually make him so much better a president at home. That would be the stuff of miracles."

Scratched Tooth @keencritic.bsky.social · 2d

"[J]ust stopping this terrible Gaza war — if it holds — is worthy of praise and the stuff of wonderful headlines. But seeing this whole plan through would be the stuff of history and Nobel Prizes."

cont'd

Opinion | Give Trump the Nobel for Gaza, if He Does the Harder Parts to Come

Scratched Tooth @keencritic.bsky.social · 2d

Friedman offers what is due to Trump, for his conduct with respect to both the Middle East and America:

"[K]eep playing the uniter in the Middle East and the divider in America — and this Gaza plan will be a footnote to a failed presidency."

And let us say "Amen"!

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/o...

Opinion | The Origin of ‘Equal Justice Under Law'

Scratched Tooth @keencritic.bsky.social · 5d

Sounds like mild criticism of the Supreme Court from former Justice Kennedy, but he permitted Kavanaugh to join the Court.

Crocodile tears.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/o...

Opinion | Why Left and Right Can’t Understand Each Other’s Fears

Scratched Tooth @keencritic.bsky.social · 5d

Ross tries desperately to sound impartial and objective in comparing the aspects of what he calls out-of-control left-wing progressivism and out-of-control right-wing populism that feel scary to each other. But he gives the game away by ignoring that extreme populism is unpopular with all voters.

Scratched Tooth @keencritic.bsky.social · 5d

Indeed, the roots of Israel/Palestine go back thousands of years, even if you don't count the Bible.

1 3

Scratched Tooth @keencritic.bsky.social · 6d

וֶהֱוֵי דָן אֶת כָּל הָאָדָם לְכַף זְכוּת:

Judge all men with the scale weighted in the direction of merit.

Pirkei Avos, 1:6.

Scratched Tooth @keencritic.bsky.social · 6d

Unlike Douthat's, French's religious beliefs do not suffuse all he writes. His sociopolitical views are congenial enough to me that I am willing to wade through the faith-based stuff when it shows up.

I didn't put much stock in Erika Kirk's forgiveness speech, but I do in the Mormons' gestures.

It’s Just a Virus, the E.R. Told Him. Days Later, He Was Dead.

Scratched Tooth @keencritic.bsky.social · 6d

If only Sam Terblanche had been in a medical show episode, where nothing stops the ER docs from ultimately getting it right!

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/05/w...

Opinion | When A.I. Came for Hollywood

Scratched Tooth @keencritic.bsky.social · 6d

"In the immortal words of Emily Blunt, 'Good Lord, we’re screwed.' ”

Yup.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/04/o...

Scratched Tooth @keencritic.bsky.social · 6d

"Losing in court" =/= losing in the Supreme Court.

Molly Jong-Fast @mollyjongfast.bsky.social · 6d

The regime keeps losing in court because what they’re doing is illegal

Marc Elias @marcelias.bsky.social · 7d

🚨BREAKING: A federal judge Saturday blocked President Donald Trump’s call-up of the National Guard for a deployment in Portland, saying Trump’s actions were based on false claims and undermined Oregon’s sovereignty. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

Opinion | Who Is Donald Trump Responsible To?

Scratched Tooth @keencritic.bsky.social · 6d

President of all the MAGAts.

But, even then, only if they live in MAGA states.

Beyond vile.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/04/o...

Opinion | The N.F.L. Gets It. Why Don’t Democrats?

2

Scratched Tooth @keencritic.bsky.social · 6d

Molly Jong-Fast is uncharacteristically incoherent (the downside is worth the upside?), but she has a point--like Bernie and AOC, Bad Bunny is 142 times better at rallying support for sanity than Schumer-Jeffries.

And he drives MAGA batty. What more do we need?

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/04/o...

Opinion | The Grace That Gives Us Hope

Scratched Tooth @keencritic.bsky.social · 6d

I admire @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social and am in awe of his groping for seeds of hope (although I wish it weren't *quite* so embedded in faith generally and Christianity in particular--but that's who he is). Please remember as well the tremendous grace of Mother Emanuel survivors forgiving Dylan Roof.

Israel at War With Itself

Scratched Tooth @keencritic.bsky.social · 6d

Both the Israelis and the Palestinians are riven by disputes and disagreements, but in both cases the fractures are largely over internal governance issues. Neither side is willing, with the exception of a few folk at the fringes, to consider issues of how to get along with each other. This is bad.

Scratched Tooth @keencritic.bsky.social · 6d

In the history of Great Britain (excluding Ireland for the moment), religious discrimination and persecution went back and forth between Catholic-led purges (Mary) and Protestant-led purges (Edward VI). I think the "Troubles" is a term used to mean a more specific and focused form of disorder.

Scratched Tooth @keencritic.bsky.social · 7d

Mieux vaut tard que jamais!

Defend Democracy @defenddemocracy.bsky.social · 7d

President Macron: “Europeans, let's wake up!

We have been incredibly naive in entrusting our democratic space to social networks.”

defenddemocracy.eu/macron-democ...