Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

musicmaker5.bsky.social @musicmaker5.bsky.social · 5h

Heartbreaking for the many students with special needs and their families. Just awful.

Sara Partridge, Ph.D. @sarapartridge.bsky.social · 1d

There are reports that the *entire* office of special education at the US Dept of Education has been cut. These hardworking folks ensure kids with disabilities get equal access to a quality education.

America’s children deserve better than this.

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Leah Litman @leahlitman.bsky.social · 1d

More judges speak to the press (the NYT) about what a disaster the Supreme Court (specifically the shadow docket) has been - “incredibly demoralizing & troubling”; a “judicial crisis”; a “slap in the face to district courts.” www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/u...

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musicmaker5.bsky.social @musicmaker5.bsky.social · 5h

Excellent and timely op-ed.
"When enough people have organized around a constitutional vision, they have managed to prevail even against a hostile Supreme Court."

The 14th Amendment Center @the14thcenter.bsky.social · 1d

A critical premise of the work of the 14th Amendment Center is that we are all founders & framers of the future of democracy in this country.

Prof. Kate Andrias channels that spirit in this excellent op-ed.
GIFT LINK
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/o...

Opinion | The Constitution Doesn’t Belong to Trump or the Supreme Court

www.nytimes.com

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Daniel Larison @daniellarison.bsky.social · 1d

In his foreign policy, Trump launches illegal attacks, murders people, and starts pointless and destructive trade wars. Is that what Douthat wants at home? Because he’s already getting it. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/o...

Opinion | Why Can’t Trump’s Domestic Policy Be More Like His Foreign Policy?

www.nytimes.com

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Daniel Larison @daniellarison.bsky.social · 1d

Trump’s first-term foreign policy was riddled with one failure after another. Almost everything he attempted either fizzled out or blew up in his face. Don’t let this garbage revisionism stand.

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Brian Lyman @brianlyman.bsky.social · 10h

The federal courts have degenerated into places for far-right charlatans to bypass democracy, and democratic reforms must start there.

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Dr. Tara L. Conley @taralconley.com · 9h

for active military or if you know someone in the military:

“The Orders Project is a non-partisan program created by the National Institute for Military Justice to assist military personnel in understanding their options when faced with orders they believe may not be legal.”
www.nimj.org/top.html#/

Orders Project

The Orders Project is a non-partisan program created by the National Institute for Military Justice to assist military personnel in understanding their options when faced with orders they believe may....

www.nimj.org

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Evan May @gianttourtiere.bsky.social · 2d

The issue is just funding and resources. That's it.

Really the same as in education.

You have to pay for it, and then it works wonderfully.

Kate Heartfield @kateheartfield.com · 2d

There are many problems in Ontario health care, but today I got a same-day urgent care slot for the kid, in our town (which has been recruiting doctors). We were in and out in 10 mins, prescription in hand, no thought about money or insurance for the visit of course. Things can work. (The kid is ok)

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Natalie Brender @nataliebrender.bsky.social · 2d

Jfc--not used lightly--it's one thing to speculate "they may have discussed their shared Catholic faith" in a speculative history or biography, but here and now in the news this week?? Seriously, @theglobeandmail.com?

The Globe and Mail @theglobeandmail.com · 2d

Carney and Vance’s shared Catholic faith could have been dinner-table conversation topic, experts say

A readout from the Prime Minister’s office says the pair discussed ‘common priorities’ at Tuesday event

www.theglobeandmail.com

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Kevin Elliott @kjephd.bsky.social · 1d

Unconstitutionally taking money that the law says must be spent on one purpose & using it for something else—when it's to establish personalist control over the FUCKING MILITARY—is about as dangerous a constitutional crisis/failure as you can imagine

Via: www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...

The Office of Management and Budget sent a notification to Congress about their intent to use research and development funds to pay members of the military, two sources with direct knowledge tell NBC News.

A spokesperson for the OMB confirmed to NBC News that it plans to use the research and development funds and that there are two years' worth of funds available within the Department of Defense.

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George Takei @georgetakei.bsky.social · 1d

Stay strong, stay beautiful, Chicago. c

Tweet from Fred Wellman: “Weird. I was told it’s a war zone.”
Below is a Time Out Chicago post showing a scenic city skyline at sunset with the text: “Chicago has been voted the Best Big City in the U.S. for the ninth consecutive year.”

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Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 1d

A lawsuit alleges a Black postal worker died after officers ignored clear signs he was suffering from a massive stroke, believing his medical emergency was drugs

The suit says guards left him helpless on a jail cell floor in his own urine for hours

KARE 11 Investigates: Postal worker died after police mistook stroke for drug impairment

Kingsley Bimpong was jailed instead of hospitalized; video shows guards ignored his suffering for hours.

www.kare11.com

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utopia deferred @utopia-defer.red · 2d

anyone else notice that the west took a turn for the worse once the concept of signaling one’s own social virtue became derogatory, almost as if cynically deriding all displays of charity and good will is indicative of a deeply cynical and nihilistic society capable of collaborating in genocide

larry @larrrrrry.bsky.social · 2d

her advocacy for Palestinians doesn't bother me nearly as much as she is so desperately doing all this as an actual act of transparent virtue signaling, to fill the absence she has in depth of character

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Sam Youngman @samyoungman.bsky.social · 1d

Trump went for a Covid shot and then set the CDC on fire.

If that ain’t that asshole in a nutshell.

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Tyler King @tyleraking.com · 22h

This is just so very, very illegal. And Republicans in Congress aren’t the least bit interested in controlling the purse. They’re just employees of trump org at taxpayer expense. This is a dictatorship.

Task & Purpose @taskandpurpose.com · 1d

Pentagon moves $8 billion from research to pay troops trib.al/G0HMywT

Pentagon moves $8 billion from research to pay troops

Left over R&D funds will be used to pay military members on Oct. 15, the Department of Defense said, following orders from President Trump.

trib.al

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Get Out The Mid Term Vote @gotmtv.bsky.social · 1d

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50501: The People’s Movement ❌👑 @50501movement.bsky.social · 11h

“CDC is over. It was killed. This administration only knows how to break things. They have made America at risk for outbreaks and attacks by nefarious players. People should be scared,” said Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, former director of the CDC’s National Center on Immunization and Respiratory Diseases

"CDC is over": RFK Jr. lays off over 1,000 employees in Friday night massacre

Amid the ongoing shutdown, the HHS secretary wiped out entire offices that investigate disease outbreaks, manage infectious disease responses and collect data.

www.msnbc.com

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 15h

The regime gets more deranged every day. A rightwing conspiracy theorist assassinated a Democratic lawmaker - which the attorney general presents as an example of leftwing political violence in order to justify an authoritarian crackdown on the opposition…

We’re in incredibly dangerous territory.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

Bondi: "We've been living through a horrific cycle of political violence in this country ... night after night antifa wrecks havoc on the streets of our cities. In Minnesota, a gunman murdered a state lawmaker and her husband."

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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 12h

No institutional design can overcome a lawbreaking president, a Congress defending lawbreaking and forfeiting its own power, a Supreme Court that pretends legal text doesn’t count to facilitate lawbreaking, and a citizenry that votes for all that.
Need at least one that wants rule of law. Maybe two.

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Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 12h

The US is a straight-up police state, more egregious than the vast majority of ‘totalitarian regimes’ we (in the Global North) grew up being warned about.

Picture the Feds took with supposed Latin Kings leader (whose wife says he’s being framed) is 100% inspired by the IDF

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musicmaker5.bsky.social @musicmaker5.bsky.social · 10h

Vought is the architect of MAGA's plan to immiserate and persecute Americans who he deems unworthy of full citizenship and the rights and privileges it confers. Many of MAGAs supporters are being hurt in the process. That the NYTimes obscures this fact is bad journalism.

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 11h

Sunday reading:

I wrote about the aggrieved extremist who is currently firing thousands of federal workers and ravaging state capacity based on conspiratorial nonsense - and about mainstream media’s infuriating tendency to sanitize Russell Vought and the regime he serves.

This week’s 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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Bob Mann @robertmannbooks.com · 12h

When will the DC press start taking about the mental stability of a man who doesn’t remember he was president on Jan. 6, 2021?

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musicmaker5.bsky.social @musicmaker5.bsky.social · 1d

Mark Carney's inadequate housing policy (relying on the private sector) "can nibble at the edges of the crisis, it can’t resolve the contradiction at its core: housing cannot be both affordable to everyone and a source of immense wealth in a capitalist economy that demands infinite growth."

www.thestar.com

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musicmaker5.bsky.social @musicmaker5.bsky.social · 1d

Many lower court judges are unhappy with the green light the Supreme Court has given to Trump's illegal power grab. (Gift link)

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

www.nytimes.com

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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 2d

“.. Since the pandemic, he has mostly lived on the Big Island of Hawaii, where he has bought up numerous parcels of land. He said that he wasn’t sure how many days he spends each year in San Francisco ..”

@nytimes.com $CRM
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/u...

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