Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Billie @billieiswriting.bsky.social · 24m

Google "jury nullification". Here, I will help:
www.google.com/search?q=jur...

Reposted by Billie

Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 4h

JB Pritzker and Gavin Newsom are doing something new and important: They understand Stephen Miller's theory of fascist power politics, and they've developed a theory on how to combat it. More Dems need to reckon with Miller's understanding of the moment.

New from me:
newrepublic.com/article/2014...

Inside Stephen Miller’s Secret Plan to Normalize Trump’s Dictator Rule

He wants to supercharge searing civil tensions to get low-information voters to embrace their inner authoritarian. Exactly two Democrats appear to fully grasp this.

newrepublic.com

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Evil Orc Heart @evanurquhart.bsky.social · 1h

I'm writing the newsletter this week on a question I think a lot of us have been pondering: When is it really time to leave the country?

The newsletter is our primary perk for Assigned Members, free to them but not available otherwise. It's the single best way for readers to support our reporting.

Become a Member — Assigned

Support Assigned Media by becoming a member for $12 a month and get our weekly newsletter.

www.assignedmedia.org

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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 8h

Badenoch and Co see education only as a means to a massive income in some soul destroying career.

Devoid of imagination and the power of knowledge they view life entirely through the prism of the CV.

My advice always is to study what interests you and the rest will follow

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Billie @billieiswriting.bsky.social · 1d

If there were some techne that could change your sexuality or gender identity would you want it to be legal for use on minors?

Billie @billieiswriting.bsky.social · 20d

The fact that it doesn't work isn't the "fatal flaw" of conversion therapy.

If anything, the fact that it doesn't work is its most redeeming quality.

If conversion therapy worked it would be a horror on par with the most extreme human rights violations.

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Billie @billieiswriting.bsky.social · 1d

Reposting this one today.

Conversion therapy does kill people. If it actually worked it would not be any less a moral monstrosity.

Billie @billieiswriting.bsky.social · 20d

The fact that it doesn't work isn't the "fatal flaw" of conversion therapy.

If anything, the fact that it doesn't work is its most redeeming quality.

If conversion therapy worked it would be a horror on par with the most extreme human rights violations.

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Chicago Sun-Times @chicago.suntimes.com · 1d

Body-camera video appears to contradict the government’s claim that Marimar Martinez, 30, drove toward officers before one of them opened fire at her late Saturday morning in Brighton Park, her attorney claimed.
trib.al/9Sxu9IN

Attorney for woman shot by Border Patrol claims officer said 'Do something b-----' before shooting

Body-camera video appears to contradict the government's claim that Marimar Martinez, 30, drove toward officers before one of them opened fire at her late Saturday morning in Brighton Park, her attorney claimed. A judge ordered Martinez and a co-defendant released pending trial.

trib.al

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Celeste Irwin 🏳️‍⚧️ @celestefinally.bsky.social · 1d

Publishing at 7:30am Pacific time today (link in bio), I don't know what to call the emotion I'm trying to process with this, but the simple fact is that there are people with us today whose names will be on the list we read on November 20th.

"Trans day of (p)remembrance", subtitled "A short reflection on grieving those we will lose". Image is of a ghostly man walking along a trail in the woods.

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TallyAnnaE ☮️🌊 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈💙🦋 @tallyannae.bsky.social · 1d

Democrats on two congressional committees demand investigation into ICE raid in South Shore chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

Democrats on two congressional committees demand investigation into ICE raid in South Shore

Democrats on the Committee on Homeland Security and the House Committee on the Judiciary joined Illinois Democrats Reps. Delia Ramirez and Jesus "Chuy" Garcia Monday in sending a letter to U.S. Attorn...

chicago.suntimes.com

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Evil Orc Heart @evanurquhart.bsky.social · 1d

People are understandably dunking on Weiss' extremely dumb quote here, but who is this NYT reporter who's all "Bari Weiss differs from [Walter Cronkite] only because she is willing to publicly announce her highly conservative beliefs about taxes to a highly conservative audience."

Olivia Messer @oliviamesser.bsky.social · 1d

I kind of can’t believe this Bari Weiss quote is even real, and yet www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/b...

“I know that there are some people in this room who don’t believe that my marriage should have been legal … and that’s ok. Because we’re all Americans who want lower taxes.”

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Gillian Brockell @gbrockell.bsky.social · 1d

Claim: 10 cars rammed ICE
Truth: No cars rammed ICE

Claim: She boxed ICE in
Truth: ICE boxed her in

Claim: She shot a rifle at ICE
Truth: She did not have a rifle

Claim: ICE returned fire
Truth: Only ICE fired

Claim: She drove herself to the hospital
Truth: Paramedics found her

Chicago Sun-Times @chicago.suntimes.com · 1d

Body-camera video appears to contradict the government’s claim that Marimar Martinez, 30, drove toward officers before one of them opened fire at her late Saturday morning in Brighton Park, her attorney claimed.
trib.al/9Sxu9IN

Attorney for woman shot by Border Patrol claims officer said 'Do something b-----' before shooting

Body-camera video appears to contradict the government's claim that Marimar Martinez, 30, drove toward officers before one of them opened fire at her late Saturday morning in Brighton Park, her attorney claimed. A judge ordered Martinez and a co-defendant released pending trial.

trib.al

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Celeste Irwin 🏳️‍⚧️ @celestefinally.bsky.social · 1d

ICYMI - ever wonder why the infamous "Rapid-onset gender dysphoria" study is not worth taking seriously? Or why "but kids should work on their mental health first" is an awful way to treat kids with gender dysphoria?

I wrote about it (and more) here!

www.celestefinally.com/p/the-sweete...

The Sweetest Poisons: Part 10C

Dr. Lisa Littman and the (heavily corrected) study on "ROGD"

www.celestefinally.com

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1d

this is incredible

Ian Gordon @idgordon.bsky.social · 1d

If you'd like to delight in a side-by-side comparison, here's Bari Weiss' reported note to CBS staffers (left) and the one I cooked up on ChatGPT with a quickly dashed-off prompt (right). Looking forward to hearing from you in the days and weeks ahead!

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Billie @billieiswriting.bsky.social · 1d

Glad this one is still floating around!

Billie @billieiswriting.bsky.social · 3d

🎼From the halls of power
to the fortress tower,
not a stone will be left on stone.
Let the king beware
for your justice tears
ev'ry tyrant from his throne.
The hungry poor
shall weep no more
for the food they can never earn...

#transinchurch

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KOJAMF🤘🖤🤘 @kojamf.bsky.social · 3d

Dr. Jane Goodall filmed an interview with Netflix in March 2025 that she understood would only be released after her death.

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Billie @billieiswriting.bsky.social · 3d

Keep watching. Don't look away

unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 3d

Heard an officer say "let's do it" and then, in the dark, they tackle Rabbi Ben to the ground. He's being loaded into a CCSO wagon now. Broadview police also here screaming at people.

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The TRiiBE @thetriibe.com · 3d

All eyes on Broadview, Illinois tonight.

Broadview is a suburb about 12 miles west of Chicago.

Our friends are reporting on the scene ⬇️

unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 3d

Heard an officer say "let's do it" and then, in the dark, they tackle Rabbi Ben to the ground. He's being loaded into a CCSO wagon now. Broadview police also here screaming at people.

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Assigned Media @assignedmedia.org · 4d

3 Oct 2025 -- CBS, long known as the Tiffany Network for its new excellence, is bringing in anti-trans lesbian Bari Weiss as head. Weiss resigned from NYT, citing its “illiberal environment, to start the Free Press, which frequently features transphobic pieces. @rikiwilchins.bsky.social

Who is Bari Weiss, the right-wing anti-trans queer woman being given the keys to CBS News?

She’s about to control the editorial direction of the once-celebrated network's news.

www.advocate.com

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Billie @billieiswriting.bsky.social · 3d

This is also what fascism looks like. This is wrong.
This is not what I want to see happening in my country.

Hart Cunningham @hpsc24.bsky.social · 3d

10/4/25😳East Garfield, IL🇺🇸🙏

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Trey Ferguson @pastortrey05.com · 3d

YOU SEE WHAT I MEAN?!

They never heard the Good News!!!

Trey Ferguson:
Might be time to send missionaries to share the gospel with the white evangelical church in America.

A white evangelical:
What is the gospel?

A white evangelical: What is the gospel?

Trey Ferguson: Release to the captives. Restored vision. Freedom for the oppressed. Jubilee.The defeat of the power of death.

A white evangelical: That's liberation theology, not the gospel.
Be sure this kind of gobbledygook is not what Paul had in mind as "the power of God for salvation to all who believe...

Trey Ferguson:

See?
You've never encountered the gospel a day in your life.
Repent and believe, beloved.

*posts screenshots of Jesus & Paul saying what he just said*

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Robert Evans (the Only Robert Evans) @iwriteok.bsky.social · 3d

Pritzker needs to take some sort of demonstrative action against this. But nothing he does will stop this.

Still, liberal voters and elected leaders are confronted by the fact that the police are not democratically accountable. They have no interest in protecting you or your rights from the feds.

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 5d

Gov. Pritzker has said all the right things, but now he needs to act and get these state troopers out of there.

unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 5d

A protester with a mobility aid (cane) was sitting in the road. Illinois state troopers dragged them to the grass and arrested them.

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paulpro @mariopro.bsky.social · 3d

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Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · 3d

NEW: Judge Immergut BLOCKS Trump's federalization of the Oregon National Guard, writing that the govt has "made a range of arguments that, if accepted, risk blurring the line between civil and military federal power—to the detriment of this nation." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

CONCLUSION
For the above reasons, this Court GRANTS Plaintiffs' Motion for Temporary Restraining Order, ECF 6, and temporarily enjoins Defendants' September 28, 2025, Memorandum ordering
the federalization and deployment of Oregon National Guard service members to Portland. The
TRO expires in fourteen days on October 18, 2025, and the parties are ORDERED to comply with the attached TRO. The Defendants' request to stay or administratively stay the Temporary Restraining Order, see Defendants' Opposition to Plaintiffs' Motion for Temporary Restraining
Order, ECF 35 at 41, is DENIED.
IT IS SO ORDERED
DATED this 4th day of October, 2025 at 3:40 p.m. pacific daylight time.
/s/ Karin J. Immergut
Karin J. Immergut
United States District Judge

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Ahmed Baba @ahmedbaba.bsky.social · 4d

This Chicago ICE raid is inhumane. Terrorizing an entire apartment building in the middle of the night, separating families, detaining children, and harassing innocent people is indefensible.

This has to stop.

Chris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · 5d

According to eyewitnesses, armed ICE agents dragged kids out of their beds in the middle of the night, zip tied them and put them in rented vans while raiding an * entire apartment building* on the South Side of Chicago.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOXO...

‘F--- them kids’: ICE agents drag children out of bed, ransack Chicago building

YouTube video by MSNBC

www.youtube.com

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