Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Abdul El-Sayed @abdulelsayed.bsky.social · 12h

When the bailout for Argentina…is actually a bailout for the Treasury Secretary’s hedge fund billionaires.

They get richer…and it just gets harder for you.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/u...

Big Investors Await Windfall From Trump’s Argentina Bailout

www.nytimes.com

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Siva @sivav.bsky.social · 2d

So glad people are coming around to the fact that @jonathanhaidt.bsky.social is an opportunistic hustler, not a serious scholar or a careful intellectual.

Taylor Lorenz @taylorlorenz.bsky.social · 4d

"Haidt’s thesis is broader than just 'new thing bad.' In The Anxious Generation and his public commentary you find a dismissal of young people as a thinking, feeling group: they are anxious because of phones, they empathize with Gaza because of phones."

now is not the time to ban phones

why Jonathan Haidt sucks

howtodothingswithmemes.substack.com

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Tara Calishain @researchbuzz.bsky.social · 8h

I'm beginning to believe the shutdown is mostly because of the Epstein files. Which means this will work for only so long

Baltimore Banner @thebaltimorebanner.com · 8h

Trump directs Pentagon to use ‘all available funds’ to pay troops despite shutdown

Trump directs Pentagon to use ‘all available funds’ to ensure troops are paid

President Donald Trump said Saturday that he has directed the Defense Department to use “all available funds” to ensure U.S. troops are paid Wednesday despite the government shutdown.

buff.ly

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Anne Haberkern @annehaberkern.bsky.social · 9h

Hm, no plywood in sight on Hawthorne this morning…

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 11h

a russ vought special

Sara Partridge, Ph.D. @sarapartridge.bsky.social · 11h

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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jj skolnik @modernistwitch.myatproto.social · 13h

every single dem should be taking notes. this is how you message around trans issues

(of note: i believe he is the only cis candidate for office to have trans people consult on his lgtbq+ policy platform)

Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 16h

UNTIL IT’S DONE, Ep. 4: Sylvia Rivera

In the 1970s, queer New Yorkers had been pushed to the margins of NYC. Our trans neighbors faced immense cruelty. But in Sylvia Rivera, they found a champion.

As we combat Trump’s politics of darkness, her legacy can light the path forward.

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randy r. potts @thephatic.bsky.social · 13h

this headline, so calm and informative and straightforward, is one of the most chilling things I've read all year

Charles Keener @charleskeener.bsky.social · 21h

www.commondreams.org/news/ice-chi...

ICE Pins Chicago TV News Producer to the Ground, Hauls Her Off in Unmarked Van | Common Dreams

WGN producer Debbie Brockman forcefully arrested by ICE agents in Chicago. Video shows aggressive tactics used in the arrest.

www.commondreams.org

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 13h

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 · 15h

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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Victor Ray @victorerikray.bsky.social · 14h

In this area of unsettled politics, I am continually shocked at who I find myself aligned with. But this Cato Institute take down of the authoritarian “compact” is good.

Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · 1d

New from me at Cato: I go through the numerous and massive First Amendment and academic-freedom violations of Trump's proffered "compact" with universities and then talk about the mechanism by which it would be enforced, by way of what I describe as a "retroactive push-button guillotine."

Universities Must Defend Their Independence by Rejecting Trump's "Compact"

The Trump administration has proffered a “compact” to universities that would require them to surrender their independence and academic freedom. How many First Amendment violations can we identify in ...

www.cato.org

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Pé 🍺🧿 @forevernever.bsky.social · 14h

It's seriously infuriating how national media is bothsidesing Portland. There's a major (award winning!) airport here which you can fly nonstop to from every city in the country.

SEND A FUCKING REPORTER AND RENT THEM A CAR!!!

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Stephen West @stephenwest.bsky.social · 1d

Counterpoint:

You absolutely do not have to hand it to enslavers

Wilson: Now, one of the things I want to do is say: I’m really glad that slavery’s gone, and good riddance. And I want to say that the Southern slave owner, who read the books of Ephesians and Colossians and 1 Timothy and treated his slaves decently, remembering that he had a master in heaven who he studiously tried to obey — what Paul said slave owners were supposed to do — I would say he was not an orc, and he is part of the reason why slavery ended. In other words, I would say he’s a good guy.

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Dr. M.A. Davis @mikedavis.bsky.social · 1d

encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/cart... there was a very famous Virginian who undertook the largest single emancipation before the ACW because of what he believed about God but for some reason (what could it be) he is not generally mentioned by these folks.

Robert Carter (1728–1804) - Encyclopedia Virginia

Early Years Carter was the son of and Priscilla Churchhill Carter and was born on February 9, 1728, probably at , the plantation of his paternal grandfather. Both of his grandfathers, the land baron R...

encyclopediavirginia.org

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Tara Calishain @researchbuzz.bsky.social · 1d

Also: Hot Pockets used to be good. I don't know when they started putting lava in that shit

Aaron Cameron @thatbootlegguy.bsky.social · 1d

I’m 52. I remember the initial national marketing campaigns touting the inventions of Diet Coke, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Chicken McNuggets, soft & chewy store bought cookies, Hot Pockets and microwave popcorn.

Doug Mack @douglasmack.bsky.social · 2d

also, if you were born before 1987, you are older than honey roasted peanuts

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Popehat Agitates And Irritates @kenwhite.bsky.social · 1d

Men will run for Mayor and complete their term rather than go to therapy

Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · 1d

"What is it going to take before you drop your hate and say, 'Listen, the guy did the job!' I'm not running anymore, so you no longer have to do this whole charade. I turned the city around, folks—come on! ... Stop coming up with all of these creative ways of saying 'Eric failed.' Eric didn't fail."

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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 1d

All I want in life is to persuade everyone, when encountering politics & culture, to ask, "why are we talking about this?" I mean that very literally: anything you encounter on your screens reflects a choice. Someone covered that, talked about that, rather than the many other things out there. Why?

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Shelley Powers @burningbird.net · 1d

The Trump admin can't even do this right

www.propublica.org/article/trum...

“I Don’t Want to Be Here Anymore”: They Tried to Self-Deport, Then Got Stranded in Trump’s America

Venezuelan immigrants signed up for a Trump-promoted app called CBP Home, which promised a safe and easy way to leave the country, and prepared to leave on their given departure dates. Those dates hav...

www.propublica.org

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Simon St.Laurent @simonstl.com · 1d

'Many of the seeps were found at sites that had been repeatedly studied before, suggesting they were new. This may indicate a “fundamental shift” in the methane released in the region, according to the report.' www.cnn.com/2025/10/10/c...

Scientists discovered something alarming seeping out from beneath the ocean around Antarctica | CNN

Planet-heating methane is escaping from cracks in the Antarctic seabed, with new seeps being discovered at an “astonishing rate,” raising fears that future global warming predictions may have been und...

www.cnn.com

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Sarah J. Jackson @sjjphd.bsky.social · 1d

As someone who has studied the circulation of terms “subversive” and “communist” in the lead to and through McCarthyism as empty signifiers to justify violent suppression I feel like I’m both amazed and unsurprised how transparently and unsophisticatedly “woke” and “antifa” are now doing the same.

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Sarah J. Jackson @sjjphd.bsky.social · 1d

Curious if folks are getting the impression that those around them are unaware antifa is not an org? We know this admin is dead set on pretending it is & many media are uncritically perpetuating that. Feels like we’re watching an elite disinfo campaign move in both a rapid and absurdist fashion.

Karl Bode @karlbode.com · 2d

you'd think a prominent news outlet like the New York Times might mention that "antifa" isn't an actual organization in a long story about antifa, but nope!

and the subhead helps props up a false claim this professor was up to something seedy as something up for debate

NYT headline: "Rutgers Expert on Antifa Tries to Flee to Spain After Death Threats"

subheadline: "Mark Bray was teaching courses on antifascism. Turning Point USA accused him of belonging to antifa, which he denies. His flight to Spain was canceled abruptly on Wednesday night."

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Noel Hidalgo 🗽❤️🚲 @noneck.org · 1d

again, with a stroller, the station agent refuses to unlock the accessibly door because it isn't her job, and demands that i watch a youtube video.

Noel Hidalgo 🗽❤️🚲 @noneck.org · 2d

once again, the alternate station agent at 14th and first (H7) doesn't know how to open up the accessibility door and demands that I pushed the button and wait.

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Andboo Haunton 🎃😷 @andrewhinton.bsky.social · 1d

Peter Thiel saying the quiet part out loud — surveillance for thee… but not for me and “my” money

Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · 1d

All these anxious billionaires....

“It’s become quite difficult to hide one’s money,” Thiel said, according to the recordings. “An incredible machinery of tax treaties, financial surveillance, and sanctions architecture has been constructed.” Wealth gives the “illusion of power and autonomy,” Thiel added, according to the recordings, “but you have this sense it could be taken away at any moment.”

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Jeff Sharlet @jeffsharlet.bsky.social · 2d

It sure did, and some of us said so; some, like Susan Faludi, in her book The Terror Dream, wrote brilliantly about such language. More said we were being hysterical. My point isn't "told ya so"; it's that language really matters.

Christopher Noble @bassgardener.bsky.social · 2d

The creation of the DHS seemed authoritarian at the time. The term, "Homeland Security," smacks of jackboots, and truncheons, and faceless predation. These are not a few of my favorite things.

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sarah jeong @sarahjeong.bsky.social · 2d

thinking about how fucked up it is to give kids measles on purpose and then withhold tylenol from them

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Andrew Lawrence @ndrew.bsky.social · 2d

these people are actually out of their fucking minds and im so sick of being told we need to pretend otherwise

Justin Baragona @justinbaragona.bsky.social · 2d

Besides linking Tylenol in pregnant women to autism, RFK Jr. now says circumcision is part of the reason why kids are autistic.

"Children who are circumcised early have double the rate of autism, and it's highly likely because they're given Tylenol. None of this is positive..."

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Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 2d

feel like if you had a super long work day and you get home feeling exhausted but still make the healthy meal you had planned for dinner instead of just eating some slop then there should be a procession in your honour in your neighbourhood, and the mayor should give you the keys to the city

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