Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Bart Bonikowski

Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 19h

I feel like this photo of masked, armed men pepper spraying a pastor protecting his community is going to be a defining picture of this moment in America for a long, long time.

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Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 5d

"This is extortion, plain and simple.... The only solution is solidarity and collective action against this effort at federal control over higher education."

A sobering analysis of the illegality of the administration's "compact" and its stakes for higher ed. 🎁🔗

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/o...

Opinion | Trump’s ‘Compact’ With Universities Is Just Extortion

www.nytimes.com

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Matthew Stiegler @matthewstiegler.bsky.social · 7d

History offers many examples of leaders willing to say this sort of thing becoming leaders willing to order unspeakable things.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 7d

Vance: "If you're an American citizen & you've been to the hospital in the last few years, you've probably noticed wait times are especially large & very often somebody who's there in the ER is an illegal alien. Why do those people get healthcare benefits at hospitals paid for by American citizens?"

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Mark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social · 11d

Today’s shameful shadow docket decision from the Supreme Court—allowing Trump to unilaterally cancel $4 billion in aid—is not behavior that any healthy democracy tolerates of its judiciary. It is a sign of constitutional rot that precedes the rule of law’s collapse. slate.com/news-and-pol...

The Supreme Court Just Rewrote the Constitution to Give Trump Terrifying New Powers

The conservative supermajority's lawless shadow docket decision let the president unilaterally cancel $4 billion in foreign aid.

slate.com

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Institute for Public Knowledge @ipk.bsky.social · 13d

Join IPK on September 29th for a discussion with @ruthbraunstein.bsky.social. She will discuss When the Wolves Came, a new documentary podcast spotlighting evangelical leaders resisting political extremism in their church & country, with Delia Baldassarri & @bartbonikowski.bsky.social.

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Oliver Willis @owillis.bsky.social · 15d

the biden administration spent nearly four years refusing to take any victory laps. they allowed the right to dominate the storyline and bs filled the vacuum. their biggest accomplishments they added dumb "bipartisan" language to. so the public was left w the impression biden wasnt doing anything.

Kevin Elliott @kjephd.bsky.social · 15d

A challenge to politics-understanders: why was Biden so unpopular given the very good policy he delivered on wages, climate, & antitrust, among others? This is not an invitation to relitigate 2024, but rather explore what his political failure reveals about the underlying mechanisms of politics.

Kevin Elliott @kjephd.bsky.social · 15d

Ah, I see. I suppose I want deliverism to work, but fear Biden proves it doesn't, so I want someone to explain convincingly why some future attempt would be different. Perhaps that's not clear

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Jimmy Kimmel @jimmykimmel.com · 14d

As I was saying…

Jimmy Kimmel is Back!

YouTube video by Jimmy Kimmel Live

youtu.be

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Molly Jong-Fast @mollyjongfast.bsky.social · 20d

Canceling Jimmy Kimmel show is not about Charlie Kirk, just like going after universities was not about antisemitism and occupying DC was not about fighting crime.

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Bart Bonikowski @bartbonikowski.bsky.social · 20d

Scholars once assumed that countries w state-owned media were most vulnerable to the authoritarian capture of the public sphere. Hungary proved that wrong. By leveraging licensing, private media can be brought to heel—all the more so w high concentration of ownership. Trump has learned from Orban.

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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 22d

A reporter just asked the U.S. president a perfectly legitimate question about his attorney general's vow to prosecute people for constitutionally protected speech.

He responded by threatening to prosecute the reporter.

The threat itself is an abuse of power. It ought to be an impeachable offense.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 22d

JON KARL: What do you make of Pam Bondi saying she's gonna go after hate speech? A lot of your allies say hate speech is free speech

TRUMP: We'll probably go after people like you because you treat me so unfairly. You have a lot of hate in your hate. Maybe they'll have to go after you.

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David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 22d

at the center of the efforts to destroy civil society in russia, hungary, georgia and elsewhere is the stigmatization, harassment, & criminalization of NGOs. that's what this is about, a full-on assault on democratic debate & freedoms.

this is not hyperbole. it's right here.

The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 23d

Vance: "There's no unity with people who fund these articles, who pay the salaries of these terrorist sympathizers...Soros' OSF and the Ford Foundation...benefit from generous tax treatment...How do they reward us? By setting fire to the house built by the American family."

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Bart Bonikowski @bartbonikowski.bsky.social · 22d

They wanted to pin Kirk’s death on the left to orchestrate an authoritarian crackdown. Reality didn’t cooperate: shooter was not a leftist. Option 1: move on, wait for another day. Option 2 (from the autocratic playbook): brazenly lie & bend reality to your will. They seem to be choosing the latter.

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David Corn @davidcorn.bsky.social · 22d

Very fascist-y.

The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 23d

Vance: "There's no unity with people who fund these articles, who pay the salaries of these terrorist sympathizers...Soros' OSF and the Ford Foundation...benefit from generous tax treatment...How do they reward us? By setting fire to the house built by the American family."

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Alan Elrod @aselrod.bsky.social · 23d

“When certain far-right voices vow retribution in response to Kirk’s murder, they’re seizing on it as a bad-faith pretext to wage open warfare on liberals and leftists who are not guilty of any political violence at all.” @gregsargent.bsky.social absolutely nails it

newrepublic.com/article/2004...

Trump Just Went on Fox and Issued an Unnerving Threat Against Liberals

At a time when right-wing extremists are calling for open season on liberals and the left, the president of the United States just told them: Hey, go for it.

newrepublic.com

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Bart Bonikowski @bartbonikowski.bsky.social · 25d

The bullets had “trans markings”!! Oh wait, they didn’t? Well the killer was secretly trans!! Wait, he wasn’t? Well the killer had a trans girlfriend!! I mean roommate! Or he once walked by a trans person on the street!! Or heard “trans” on TV!! Trans!! Trans!! Trans!! (F’ing shameless monsters.)

Ari Drennen @aridrennen.bsky.social · 25d

Kash Patel's FBI is now claiming that they caught the Charlie Kirk shooter through texts with his transgender roommate, which is odd because just yesterday the Governor of Utah was saying that his family turned him in, leading to widespread calls for Patel to resign.

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Erin Reed @erininthemorning.com · 25d

The Nation pulls NO punches, from @espiers.bsky.social

"There's no requirement to take part in this whitewashing campaign. Refusing to join in doesn’t make anyone a bad person. It’s a choice to write an obituary that begins “Joseph Goebbels was a gifted marketer and loving father to six children.”

Charlie Kirk’s Legacy Deserves No Mourning

The white Christian nationalist provocateur wasn’t a promoter of civil discourse. He preached hate, bigotry, and division

www.thenation.com

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Michael McDonald @electproject.bsky.social · 25d

Well since I can’t use Kirk’s murder to attack my political opponent I guess I’ll move on

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 26d

Q: My condolences on the loss of your friend Charlie Kirk. How are you holding up?

TRUMP: I think very good. And by the way, right there you see all the trucks. They just started construction of the new ballroom for the White House, which is something they've been trying to get for about 150 years.

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 25d

The pivot from rage to empathy and sorry is like 50 times too brazen to even be funny, it's just the most crude and evil demonstration possible that none of these people genuinely care about any of this shit

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Bart Bonikowski @bartbonikowski.bsky.social · 25d

Can we please stop lionizing the dangerous, radical, and morally odious victim (who obviously didn’t deserve this fate), now that the narrative no longer fits the Trumpists’ bad-faith preconceptions? Placing him next to national heroes is appalling. (Disclaimer: political violence is unacceptable.)

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Courtney Milan @courtneymilan.com · 25d

It is pretty amazing to see people go from “the left is the enemy of democracy and must be purged” to “who can really know why good kids do bad things?”

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Chad Loder @chadloder.bsky.social · 25d

Pivoted so hard they affected the earth's rotation

headline from The Telegraph featuring a smiling, clean cut photo of the alleged killer

The scholarship student with an all-American upbringing accused of killing Charlie Kirk
Tyler Robinson, 22, grew up in a middle-class family in Utah, with both parents registered Republicans

Connor Stringer
Deputy US Editor
Connor Stringer
Related Topics
Utah, Crime
12 September 2025 9:34pm BST

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Bart Bonikowski @bartbonikowski.bsky.social · 26d

Political violence is toxic and unacceptable in a liberal democracy. But what is even more toxic and unacceptable in a liberal democracy is the hypocritical and rabid vilification of half of the country—including its most vulnerable groups—by the gun-loving party in power, and the president himself.

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