Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Michael Markman @mickeleh.bsky.social · 20m

Public health. Expendable.

Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 32m

Per CDC source: At internal leadership meeting this afternoon, it was shared that 1,257 people were RIF'd at CDC. Number may not be final. Apparently, chief of staff was unaware that RIFs were going to occur so not clear who is making decisions. (Short 🧵)

Michael Markman @mickeleh.bsky.social · 23m

From @jojofromjerz.bsky.social
Beautifully written. Beautifully felt. The piece I didn’t know I needed to read today.

The Only Way Out Is Through

What Joe Biden’s endurance teaches us about America’s own capacity to heal.

open.substack.com

Reposted by Michael Markman

The Daily Beast @thedailybeast.bsky.social · 2h

The CDC layoffs mark the most significant of Trump’s promised cuts to shrink the government—with a focus on “Democrat agencies”—as a result of the government shutdown so far.

Trump Budget Goon’s Firings ‘Eviscerate’ Vital CDC Departments

Russ Vought’s extreme RIFs hit the CDC.

trib.al

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Michael Markman @mickeleh.bsky.social · 2h

Who made this? It’s brilliant.

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Reposted by Michael Markman

The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 1d

George was just trying to get to work.

ICE pepper-sprayed him, dragged him from his car, locked him in a detention center, and placed him on suicide watch. He even missed his young daughter’s birthday in the process.

This man is a veteran and American citizen. Don't look away.

The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 1d

"They put me on suicide watch and they put me in the cell, I'm naked, in like a hospital dress and just a concrete bed with like a mattress, like a thin mattress and, they leave the light on 24/7."

@timmiller.bsky.social talked to a veteran who ICE wrongly detained and brutalized

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Reposted by Michael Markman

John Sheehan @jsheehan901.bsky.social · 22h

Read this short thread.
Watch the video.
#ResistFascism

Jennifer C @thejenniwren.teamlh.social · 1d

🧵
Rush hour. Lincoln Square.
2 Border Patrol thugs tackled a WGN-TV producer to the pavement in front of horrified commuters, handcuffing her, face-down.

Debbie Brockman, a journalist with WGN since 2011, identified herself before being dragged into an unmarked silver van with New Jersey plates.

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Michael Markman @mickeleh.bsky.social · 4h

Et tu, Benioff?
I know people who work for this fascist-come-lately. I wonder how they're feeling about it.

Kara Swisher @karaswisher.bsky.social · 19h

What a crock of shit from Marc Benioff — who appears willfully ignorant of news and facts and so thirsty for approval and attention from the Trump tech bros (who in the past mocked him relentlessly) that he is soiling himself in public www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/u...

Marc Benioff Says Trump Should Send Guard Troops to San Francisco

www.nytimes.com

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Alex Winter @alexwinter.com · 16h

When "all of this" is over and the centrist pundits and politicians are kissing Musk's ass again, don't let them. Don't let anyone ignore that Musk is a mass murderer.

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 3d

i desperately want everyone involved in the destruction of USAID to have to, st the very least, answer to the american people for the suffering and misery they have caused 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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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 9h

$CRM

southpaw @nycsouthpaw.bsky.social · 9h

What an emblem of the billionaire class—descending on a peaceful city in a private jet on the horn to NYT asking for the place to be invaded by federal authorities because the rent-a-cops you employ for a week to harass a few junkies outside the convention center cost too much.

Mr. Benioff spoke as his annual Dreamforce conference is set to begin Tuesday in downtown San Francisco, bringing 50,000 visitors to the city. He is scheduled to deliver a keynote address about the benefits of "agentic enterprise," a business model in which humans and artificial intelligence bots work together.
Speaking by telephone from his private plane en route to San Francisco, he lamented that he has to pay for nundreds of off-duty law enforcement officers to help patrol the convention area and said that San Francisco needed to "re-fund" the police.
The city never actually "defunded" its police force, and San Francisco's violent crime rates are below those in many other U.S. cities.
But San Francisco has struggled to recruit and keep officers, and it still has problems with lower-level crimes and open-air drug use, especially in neighborhoods like the Tenderloin near City Hall. It has about 1,500 police officers, and Mr. Benioff says it ne → another thousand.

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Michael Markman @mickeleh.bsky.social · 4h

But we all knew this would happen, didn't we? Who in the admionistration cares about our grocery bills as long as Stephen Miller gets ICE to meet his quota?

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 9h

A rare admission from the administration that policy choices have knock-off effects.

In this case: immigration crackdowns raise your grocery bill.

@washingtonpost.com
www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

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Reposted by Michael Markman

David Simon @audacityofdespair.bsky.social · 5h

Again, and forever, if Trump -- with the leverage he has now -- can't compel the release of Marwan Barghouti, then he is content with only another pause in the century of bloodshed in The Levant. Barghouti marginalizes and affronts extremists on both sides and means real negotiations and two states.

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Reposted by Michael Markman

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 4h

an incontestable fact of the second trump administration is it is actively trying to sicken and kill as many americans as it can

Lena Sun @lenasun.bsky.social · 7h

NEW: @CDCgov hit hard by massive firings that several staff describe to me as a “bloodbath.”
Among those RIFd:
—leadership of the center for immunization and respiratory diseases;
—leadership of global health center
—leadership of the measles outbreak response; 1/4

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Michael Markman @mickeleh.bsky.social · 4h

The living reversal of an old, old quip:
"If you're so rich, why ain't you smart?"

Reposted by Michael Markman

David Simon @audacityofdespair.bsky.social · 4h

To quote Mr. Mankewicz and Mr. Wells: "It's no trick to make an awful lot of money if all you want is to make a lot of money."

When most of the U.S. electorate awakes to finally realize great wealth is no way conditional to or dependent on intelligence or morality, this country begins to heal.

Nancy Levine Stearns 🌎 @nancylevinestearns.bsky.social · 1d

Peter Thiel is Palantir co-founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors. He is president of Thiel Capital, and a partner of Founders Fund, a venture capital firm.

Everyone who remains in his circles is complicit.

www.commondreams.org/news/peter-t...

Instead of Charity, Peter Thiel Told Elon Musk to Use Billions for Right-Wing Crusade Against 'Antichrist' | Common Dreams

Billionaire Peter Thiel urges Elon Musk to hoard wealth to battle future "Antichrist." Thiel warns against giving to left-wing nonprofits.

www.commondreams.org

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Reposted by Michael Markman

David Rothkopf @djrothkopf.bsky.social · 4h

More moral and message clarity from another genuine leader within the Democratic Party.

George Conway 👊🇺🇸🔥 @gtconway.bsky.social · 6h

@sanders.senate.gov: "No, Speaker Johnson, the #NoKings Rally on October 18th is not a 'hate America' rally. ... It’s a rally of millions of people who believe in American freedom and are not going to allow you and President Trump to turn us into an authoritarian country."

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The New Republic @newrepublic.com · 21h

The House speaker is blaming the Republican-led government shutdown on Americans protesting Donald Trump. trib.al/iiPymDC

Make that make sense.

Mike Johnson Blames Shutdown on “No Kings” Protest in Absurd Rant

The House speaker is blaming the Republican-led government shutdown on Americans protesting Donald Trump. Make that make sense.

trib.al

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Michael Markman @mickeleh.bsky.social · 1d

But of course they did

Politico @politico.com · 1d

The Trump admin cancels what would have been one of the world’s largest solar power projects.

Interior cancels largest solar project in North America

It's the Trump administration's latest move to slow or block major clean energy projects.

www.politico.com

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Reposted by Michael Markman

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 1d

EPA officials directed scientists to assess whether the government could develop methods for detecting abortion pills in wastewater — a practice sought by the anti-abortion movement. The request appears to have originated from a letter sent from GOP members to Lee Zeldin, the EPA administrator.

Under Trump, E.P.A. Explored if Abortion Pills Could Be Detected in Wastewater

Scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency found that they could develop methods to identify traces of the medication if necessary — a practice long sought by the anti-abortion movement.

nyti.ms

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Michael Markman @mickeleh.bsky.social · 1d

And buy “law of one” I think he means “law of Stephen Miller.”

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The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 1d

María Corina Machado deserves the Nobel Peace Prize she won, Anne Applebaum argues. Here’s what her conversations with Machado last year revealed:

Why María Corina Machado Deserved the Nobel Peace Prize

The Venezuelan opposition leader shows why participation matters.

bit.ly

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Reposted by Michael Markman

Philadelphia Inquirer @inquirer.com · 1d

Police departments in the Philadelphia region and beyond have seen a rise in thefts in which keyless cars developed in the last decade are targeted.

Key fob cloning spurs new kind of auto theft across the Philadelphia region, authorities warn

Authorities are warning car-owners that vehicles developed in the last decade that use keyless technology are susceptible to theft.

www.inquirer.com

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Michael Markman @mickeleh.bsky.social · 1d

Maria Corina Machado is about to receive a warm congratulatory message from Donald Trump, dontcha think?

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Michael Markman @mickeleh.bsky.social · 1d

Pod Reco. Michael Wolff has seen the photos that Pam Bondi refused to talk about.

I’ve Seen Epstein Pics of Trump With Topless Girls

Podcast Episode · Inside Trump's Head · 10/10/2025 · 48m

podcasts.apple.com

Michael Markman @mickeleh.bsky.social · 1d

Pod reco:
The new Pivot. No spoilers. But it’s fanTAStic.

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/p...

Cheaper Teslas, OpenAI’s Cash Burn, and Apple’s CEO Succession Plans

Podcast Episode · Pivot · 10/10/2025 · 1h 11m

podcasts.apple.com

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ProPublica @propublica.org · 1d

Kristi Noem, while governor of South Dakota, supplemented her roughly $130,000 salary by secretly accepting $80,000 donated to a political nonprofit she was affiliated with, records show.

She never disclosed this income on federal ethics forms.

(Published June)

Kristi Noem Secretly Took a Cut of Political Donations

A dark money group paid $80,000 to Noem’s personal company when she was governor of South Dakota. She did not include this income on her federal disclosure forms, a likely violation of ethics requirem...

www.propublica.org

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