Author | Lightnews

Mike Keller @realitytourist.bsky.social · 1d

The Shining #EpsteinBallroom

Photo of crowd in ballroom from movie "The Shining"
"If Stephen King has taught us anything, it's that nothing good can happen in a ballroom"

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Mike Keller @realitytourist.bsky.social · 2d

#NoahsArk #drugmules
Cartoon by Mike Luckovich

Cartoon by Mike Luckovich showing Noah's Ark with animals aboard and a missile speeding toward it. One of the animals aboard says "Trump thinks we're drug mules."

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Reposted by Mike Keller

George Takei @georgetakei.bsky.social · 3d

The GOP-led Congress has been out of session for too long. The House is not shut down. They’re getting paid and should be working.

A tweet from Tim Walz reads: “18,000 Minnesota federal employees are facing unemployment while you’re sitting on your ass. Get back to Washington.” It quotes a tweet from Pete Stauber that says: “No better way to end a beautiful weekend in Northern Minnesota!” with an attached photo showing a cozy outdoor fire pit surrounded by chairs, wood stacks, and string lights at sunset.

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Mike Keller @realitytourist.bsky.social · 3d

And I reposted as fast as I could!

stat-monkey.bsky.social @stat-monkey.bsky.social · 4d

I stole this as fast as I could

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Mike Keller @realitytourist.bsky.social · 3d

How stupid is this?😡 #WestVirginia

Cannabis is still illegal at the federal level.
Treasurer's Office: “The money in the fund will remain unallocated until federal law changes."
But other states with legal #cannabis markets, including Maryland, Pennsylvania and Ohio, are spending their tax revenue.

West Virginia collected $34 million in cannabis taxes. It hasn’t spent a penny.

West Virginia’s cannabis program has generated $34 million for research, addiction help and law enforcement. None of the money has been used.

mountainstatespotlight.org

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Mike Keller @realitytourist.bsky.social · 3d

Look at the anti-semitists! #sarcasm

“We do not forget that so many of the laws, charters, and conventions established to safeguard and protect all human life were created in response to the Holocaust. Those safeguards have been relentlessly violated by Israel.” www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Jewish figures across the globe call on UN and world leaders to sanction Israel
Exclusive: In an open letter, Israeli ex-officials, artists and intellectuals say ‘unconscionable’ actions in Gaza amount to genocide

Mike Keller @realitytourist.bsky.social · 4d

The article now claims that the marshal was hit by a ricochet. Hmmmmmmmmmmm.

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Mike Keller @realitytourist.bsky.social · 4d

At least three GOP senators on the homeland security committee indicated they will vote against Ingrassia.
“I don’t plan on voting for him,” Scott told reporters. “I can’t imagine how anybody can be antisemitic in this country”.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
via @theguardian.com

Trump’s nomination of Paul Ingrassia loses Republican support following racist text messages
Ingrassia, Trump’s pick to lead the office of special counsel, allegedly described himself as having ‘a Nazi streak’

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Mike Keller @realitytourist.bsky.social · 4d

“By blocking Adelita Grijalva from taking her rightful oath of office, [Johnson] is subjecting Arizona’s seventh Congressional district to taxation without representation." - Kris Mayes, Arizona attorney general
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
via @theguardian.com

Arizona sues Mike Johnson over refusal to swear in Democrat who could sway Epstein vote
Attorney general Kris Mayes files suit over House speaker’s delay in letting Adelita Grijalva start her job

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Mike Keller @realitytourist.bsky.social · 4d

American Oligarchs: The Media Consolidation Timeline
cmarmitage.substack.com/p/american-o...

Sinclair Broadcast Group owns 178 television stations reaching 40% of U.S. households. The stations display ABC, CBS, NBC, or Fox affiliate logos. None display Sinclair branding. This matters because research shows 71% of Americans trust local news compared to 61% who trust national news. The ten-point trust differential allows corporate-produced content delivered through local anchors to receive credibility that identical content from national sources would not. Sinclair requires all 178 stations to air corporate-produced segments. In 2018, dozens of local news anchors across the country read an identical script: “We’re concerned about the troubling trend of irresponsible, one sided news stories plaguing our country. The sharing of biased and false news has become all too common on social media. Some members of the media use their platforms to push their own personal bias and agenda to control exactly what people think. This is extremely dangerous to our democracy.” The compilation video showing trusted local anchors in different cities reading identical corporate messaging went viral with over 30 million views. Viewers saw their local anchors, trusted for decades, speaking in unison with anchors thousands of miles away, reading words none of them wrote. Sinclair Chairman David Smith told Trump in 2016: “We are here to deliver your message.”

Democratic accountability operates through a feedback loop. Voters elect leaders. Those leaders implement policies. Voters experience the outcomes. Voters attribute outcomes to the leaders who caused them. When outcomes are negative, voters replace those leaders. This mechanism creates self-correction. Bad governance produces electoral consequences, incentivizing better governance.

The mechanism requires one condition. Voters must be able to connect outcomes to causes. When economic conditions worsen, voters must determine which policies produced the deterioration and which leaders implemented those policies. When constitutional violations occur, voters must recognize them and identify who committed them. When foreign policy fails, voters must understand what failed and why. Without accurate causal attribution, voters cannot hold leaders accountable.

Research conducted by King’s College London examined how authoritarian propaganda operates. The researchers ran experiments with 3,000 Russians. They found that propaganda’s power lies not in making citizens believe specific false claims but in creating confusion about causation. When audiences encounter what the researchers called an “avalanche of opposing claims and disinformation accusations,” they cannot determine what caused negative outcomes. They cannot attribute responsibility for regime policies. Blame becomes redirectable.

This finding connects to research from the University of Chicago examining when propaganda achieves maximum effectiveness. The researchers found propaganda works best when citizens consume similar information. When everyone in a population gets information from sources telling consistent stories, contradictory facts cannot penetrate. Oxford studies documented the mechanisms authoritarian propaganda provides: mobilization of regime allies, strategic signaling, diversion from regime failures, and pacification of dissent. The researchers found these mechanisms reinforce each other into self-…

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Reposted by Mike Keller

David Rothschild @davmicrot.bsky.social · 5d

Republican Leaders are simultaneously saying that the Jews funded No Kings rallies AND No Kings rallies were promoting antisemitic h/t @atrupar.com

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Mike Keller @realitytourist.bsky.social · 5d

The #Snapchat outage is likely a result of the widespread problems that Amazon Web Services — which hosts much of the internet — is also suffering. The likes of #Ring, Coinbase, Roblox and #Fortnite are also reportedly down at the moment.

Snapchat outage live — latest updates as social media app hit with widespread blackout

Snapchat has stopped working for a lot of users

www.tomsguide.com

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Mike Keller @realitytourist.bsky.social · 6d

The IRS recently filed notices of a federal tax lien against Republican Sen. Jim Justice of #WestVirginia — the latest example of ongoing financial troubles...

One of the documents from the IRS lists Justice and his wife as having a total balance of more than $8 million in unpaid assessments.

IRS files tax lien against Jim Justice

The former governor, who joined the Senate in 2025, has repeatedly brushed off questions about his finances.

www.politico.com

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Mike Keller @realitytourist.bsky.social · 7d

Not attending the rally today, but I'm out wearing my "No Caesars" shirt from @bsky.app 😎
#NoKings

Black T-shirt that says no Caesars in Latin

Reposted by Mike Keller

Kat Abughazaleh @katmabu.bsky.social · 8d

This morning, I was hit in the face by a baton.

I’m going to have a pretty gnarly bruise but we need to remember why this is happening: Trump and ICE are rounding up our neighbors, treating them as subhuman, and shipping them off to labor camps in foreign countries. It has to end.

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Mike Keller @realitytourist.bsky.social · 8d

“The Young Republicans was already grossly mismanaged, and vile language of the sort made in the group chat has no place in our party or its subsidiary organizations,” the New York Republican chair, Ed Cox, said in a statement announcing a unanimous vote to suspend the chapter.

Young Republicans New York chapter suspended after racist chats leaked

Group suspended following unanimous vote after Politico documented racist and antisemitic chats from members

www.theguardian.com

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Mike Keller @realitytourist.bsky.social · 9d

The program, called “Solar For All,” was established in 2022 under the Inflation Reduction Act and had appropriated grants to deploy rooftop and community solar projects...in August, the EPA announced that the program had been canceled and withdrew about 90% of grant funds.

More than 20 states sue EPA over canceled solar power grants

During the Trump administration, the Environmental Protection Agency canceled a $7 billion program aimed at making solar power accessible to low-income households.

www.nbcnews.com

Mike Keller @realitytourist.bsky.social · 9d

Did Johnson just say that beating women is NOT SERIOUS?😲

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 10d

Q: This has been reported for a while. Cory Mills was accused of beating a girlfriend in his DC apt. Are you concerned about these allegations?

JOHNSON: You have to ask Rep. Mills about that. He's been a faithful colleague. I don't know the details. Let's talk about things that are really serious

Mike Keller @realitytourist.bsky.social · 9d

‘Startled’ judge orders agents in Chicago area to wear body cameras after violent clashes
“I live in Chicago if folks haven’t noticed,” U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis said. “And I’m not blind, right?”
archive.ph/VKipR

BREAKING: Helicopter footage from fox32news shows federal agents using tear gas against protesters and CPD officers on Chicago's far Southeast Side before driving off.
Residents gathered after federal agents reportedly chased and crashed into an SUV in the neighborhood.
Follow
@heartlandsignal
for more.

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Mike Keller @realitytourist.bsky.social · 9d

If that's not #inflation, what is it? Did you say #tariffs?

'When asked to estimate how much their regular monthly household costs have increased from last year, 74% of those surveyed said they had seen increases of at least $100.' #prices

75% of Americans report soaring prices as Trump claims inflation ‘over’

Exclusive poll: Inflation remains a concern despite president’s pledge to reduce prices on ‘day one’

www.theguardian.com

Mike Keller @realitytourist.bsky.social · 9d

In an extract from her posthumous memoir, Virginia Roberts Giuffre recalls the day an “apex predator” recruited her from Mar-a-Lago, aged just 16; how she was trafficked to a succession of wealthy and powerful men, and how everyone knew what was going on.
And when do we see the #EpsteinFiles?

‘Prince Andrew believed having sex with me was his birthright’: Virginia Giuffre on her abuse at the hands of Epstein, Maxwell and the king’s brother

In an extract from her posthumous memoir, Virginia Roberts Giuffre remembers the day an ‘apex predator’ recruited her from Mar-a-Lago, aged just 16; how she was trafficked to a succession of wealthy a...

www.theguardian.com

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Mike Keller @realitytourist.bsky.social · 9d

"Kids?" Public records indicate that eight of the 11 Republican operatives who took part in the offensive chat appear to range in age from 24 to 35.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

JD Vance brushes off racist texts by adults in Republican group chat as ‘what kids do’

Vice-president downplays messages such as ‘I love Hitler’ in chat by 24 to 35-year-olds to ‘stupid jokes’

www.theguardian.com

Mike Keller @realitytourist.bsky.social · 11d

Lol. Trump says he wants to bring back coal, but nobody wants to actually pay for it. A penny a ton?
apnews.com/article/trum...

US rejects bid to buy 167 million tons of coal on public lands for less than a penny per ton

Federal officials have rejected a company’s bid to acquire 167 million tons of coal on public lands in Montana for less than a penny per ton.

apnews.com

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Mike Keller @realitytourist.bsky.social · 11d

The #Antifa Raider!

Photo of Indiana Jones with woman: "Founder of Antifa and his girlfriend"

Reposted by Mike Keller

Corpsy @corpsepilot.bsky.social · 12d

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