Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Paul Handley @phand1.bsky.social · 7h

Bari Weiss is just a highbrow Lara Loomer, making her name and filling her bank account by launching right-wing/MAGA/Zionist purity campaigns against individual and institutional targets, mustering all her followers to amplify the attack

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Dan Froomkin/Press Watch/Heads Up News @froomkin.bsky.social · 3d

On the home page, NYT frames it correctly: WaPo fails.

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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 3d

Performative public lying is a hallmark of far right authoritarian parties

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 3d

Thune: "The president would like to overhaul Obamacare and give people health insurance that is higher quality and more affordable."

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 3d

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

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Jenny Cohn @jennycohn.bsky.social · 3d

I knew something was afoot in Missouri: On 9/30/25, Judge Kacsmaryk transferred a long-standing suit re: the FDA’s regulation of mifepristone from TX to the eastern district of Missouri. “All but one of the current full-time district court judges in [that district] were appointed by…Trump.” 1/

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Paul Handley @phand1.bsky.social · 4d

Huge surge in executions, with no judicial transparency, under Saudi Arabia's imperious strongman Mohammed bin Salman.
www.thenation.com/article/worl...

What’s Behind Saudi Arabia’s Surge in Executions?

Activists believe that authorities are abusing the justice system to silence dissent and chill speech.

www.thenation.com

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Paul Handley @phand1.bsky.social · 5d

David Frum, Douglas Murray Secretly Drafted Speeches for Israeli Ambassador

www.dropsitenews.com/p/david-frum...

David Frum, Douglas Murray Secretly Drafted Speeches for Israeli Ambassador

Leaked emails from former Israeli UN Ambassador Ron Prosor show David Frum, Douglas Murray offering to write his speeches and a CNN producer fundraising for Israel’s Iron Dome during Israel’s 2014 war

www.dropsitenews.com

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LOLGOP ❌👑❌ @thefarce.org · 6d

Don't like to call Bezos a genius but he turned his paper into The Free Press without having to pay Bari a cent.

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Noah Shachtman @noahshachtman.bsky.social · 6d

I am absolutely positive there is nothing shady whatsoever about Eric Adams making a previously unannounced trip to a totally rando country.

Chris Sommerfeldt @c-sommerfeldt.bsky.social · 6d

Around 11:30 p.m. last night, Mayor Adams' office announced he's going to Albania this week.

On "day one" of his trip, Adams is meeting with the country's prime minister and will also "visit local businesses and factories."

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Mueller, She Wrote @muellershewrote.com · 7d

How can 78% of Americans want the ACA tax credits extended, but only 27% approve of Dems handling of the shutdown? Could it be the way pollsters ask questions? Is it propaganda? A corporate media issue? A messaging problem?

Scott MacFarlane @macfarlanenews.bsky.social · 7d

Low marks across the board on the government shutdown, per new CBS News polling

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The Daily Beast @thedailybeast.bsky.social · 9d

A senior White House official inadvertently revealed that the Trump administration was considering sending an elite army strike force into Portland after using Signal in a public place.

Trump Goon Spills Bonkers Plan to Deploy 82nd Airborne to Blue City

A senior White House aide’s messages were shared with a newspaper after he used Signal in a crowded public place.

trib.al

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Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 10d

It's worth asking how differently things might look on the ground right now if #SCOTUS hadn't eviscerated Bivens—and made it all-but impossible to bring damages suits against federal officers (like ICE agents) who violate our constitutional rights.

This is from my rebuttal in Hernández v. Mesa:

I do want to go back to putting this case in the broader context because I think it's important to understand how we got here. Historically, the whole way that the tort liability regime worked for government misconduct was that this Court and state courts

looked to existing common law causes of action and focused on immunity defenses as the way of calibrating the harm that citizens and others faced when injured by government officers against the need to protect officers acting in good faith, back to Judge Hand in Gregoire
versus Biddle.

The Court struck this balance by fashioning immunity defenses where the fight would be over whether the officer was entitled to immunity or not. And for law enforcement officers specifically, this Court has long
rejected the argument that there should be any context in which law enforcement officers, because of the frequency with which they
interact with average individuals, because of the nature of their interactions, because of the powers they have to search, to seize, to arrest in this context, to use lethal force, did not justify absolute immunity and instead justified a more narrower, qualified kind of immunity for those most likely to come face-to-face with private citizens.

Distilled to its simplest, the government's position in this case is that

officers in what is self-described as the nation's largest law enforcement agency should have a functional absolute immunity at least where foreign nationals are concerned.

And our submission is that that is not consistent with how this Court has always understood the relationship between causes of action and immunity defenses in this context. It is not required by any of this Court's Bivens decisions. It does not abide by this Court's suggestion in Abbasi that there are strong reasons and powerful reasons to retain Bivens in this context.

And it would eliminate the one deterrence that is meaningfully available to ensure that officers in the nation's largest law enforcement agency are complying with the law.

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Jahd Khalil @jahd.bsky.social · 10d

ICE detains lawfully present Richmond father as son waits for school bus www.vpm.org/news/2025-10...

ICE detains lawfully present Richmond father as son waits for school bus

Silviano Mora Vera's U visa should have insulated him from detention.

www.vpm.org

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Frank Figliuzzi @frankfigliuzzi.bsky.social · 11d

Gov’t shutdown alert: Washington Post - 65% of DHS’s CISA has been furloughed. That’s in contrast to 5% across DHS. The Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency successfully battles foreign and domestic cyber threats to our elections. Pay attention:

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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 11d

It's a mark of the habituation of Trump's authoritarianism that a president can summon his generals, tell them they'll play a "major part" in a "war within", announce a force to "quell civil disturbances" & talk of using US cities "as training grounds for our military" - & it doesn't lead the news.

"San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, they're very unsafe places and we're going to straighten them out one by one.
And this is going to be a major part for some of the people in this room. That's a war too. It's a war from within. …
I want to salute every service member who has helped us carry out this critical mission. It's really a very important mission. And I told Pete, we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military National Guard, but military, because we're going into Chicago very soon.
… Last month, I signed an executive order to provide training for a quick reaction force that can help quell civil disturbances.
This is going to be a big thing for the people in this room because it's the enemy from within and we have to handle it before it gets out of control.
It won't get out of control, once you're involved, at all. They all joke, they say, oh, this is not good. You saw it in Washington. We had gangs of Tren de Aragua, say 10, 12, 15 kids.
And these military guys walk up to them, and they treat them with disrespect, and they just got pounded. They just got pounded, the gang just pounded, then thrown into paddy wagons and taken back to their country."

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Kai Ryssdal @kairyssdal.bsky.social · 15d

Troops. In an American city. Using full force.

Your now-regular reminder that Republican members of Congress are letting this happen.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 15d

Trump says he’s authorized Hegseth to use “Full Force” against Antifa in “War ravaged” Portland

At the request of Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, I am directing Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to provide all necessary Troops to protect War ravaged Portland, and any of our ICE Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists. I am also authorizing Full Force, if necessary. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

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emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 15d

If you're in Portland, go take some video of how nothing is going on there.

Document that Trump is invading for no reason.

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Paul Handley @phand1.bsky.social · 16d

Worth reading on Trump's stunning memo endorsing war in all ways against his opponents.

Jeff Sharlet @jeffsharlet.bsky.social · 17d

Expanded my close read of today's Trump Terror Memo, with help from @audiosand.bsky.social & and unnamed federal-adjacent employee. slowcivilwar.substack.com/p/rubber-glu...

Rubber Glue Fascism

A close reading of "NATIONAL SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM/NSPM-7: Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence"

slowcivilwar.substack.com

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Dan Lamothe @danlamothe.bsky.social · 16d

Real post on another network:

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Karl Jacoby @karl-jacoby.bsky.social · 16d

Only an administration intent on committing war crimes in the present and future would stoop to calling Wounded Knee a "battle" rather than what it truly was: a massacre of over 250 Lakotas, mainly women, children, and the elderly. 1/

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Paul Handley @phand1.bsky.social · 16d

Very unfortunate editing:

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Paul Handley @phand1.bsky.social · 16d

They can just create a new scientific code of subgenders like Male MAac and Female Fbab that can be used to describe different "variations" and everyone will know what they are talking about.

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Paul Handley @phand1.bsky.social · 16d

The problem is no one like Jerry Jones anyway

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Brandi Buchman @brandibuchman.bsky.social · 16d

arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...

Shocker!

Trump says TikTok should be tweaked to become “100% MAGA”

Uncertainty reigns as Trump claims China approved TikTok deal.

arstechnica.com

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Paul Handley @phand1.bsky.social · 16d

Clearly what was going to happen from the beginning