Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 8h

"There's truth underneath all this fake outrage. Conservatives really are at a disadvantage in pop culture because most creative people are liberals, which has always been true & probably always will be. While MAGA has had some success building a culture machine, what it produces is mostly banal."

Whiny MAGA freaks out over Super Bowl halftime show

Songs in Spanish? In America?

www.publicnotice.co

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Khashoggi's Ghost @urocklive1.bsky.social · 5h

Authoritarianism is notoriously bad for a healthy economy.

Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 5h

“Milei wants to avoid a peso devaluation because it would fuel inflation just ahead of midterm elections on Oct. 26, in which half of the seats in Congress are up for grabs.”

Argentine Rates Soar Above 80% as Peso Crisis Sparks Cash Crunch

Argentine short-term interest rates soared on Wednesday as the government stepped up efforts to defend the peso, deepening a cash crunch that’s throttling an already fragile economy.

www.bloomberg.com

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Philip Bump @pbump.com · 8h

I spent more than a decade at The Post. It was good to me and I was proud to work there. I’ve largely refrained from being critical since I left. But this framing of the special counsel probe is embarrassing and flatly wrong. Stunning, but not. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Opinion | Jack Smith’s lawfare and James Comey’s arraignment on pathetically weak charges

Good people will be deterred from public service if they see a meaningful risk of winding up in jail afterward.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Sarah Lawton @sarahelawton.bsky.social · 1d

“One of the chants that has become ubiquitous at these protests at Broadview is, ‘Love your neighbor, love your God, save your soul and quit your job,’” said Black, who pastors at the First Presbyterian Church of Chicago. “Everybody chants that.” ⚓️

Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 1d

Wanna learn more about the pastor in this photo?

I talked to him yesterday.

He's currently part of a lawsuit against DHS, in part due to this exact moment: religionnews.com/2025/10/07/i...

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FRANCE 24 English @en.france24.com · 4h

What we know about the new Gaza deal

US President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that Israel and Hamas have agreed to the first phase of a ceasefire in Gaza, after days of indirect talks in Egypt.

f24.my

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Anna Bower @annabower.bsky.social · 7h

You’ve gotta be kidding me.

This WaPo editorial presents a misleading revisionist history of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s criminal cases against Trump.

Then it has the gall to compare that to Trump’s overt targeting of his perceived enemies.

Really embarrassing stuff.

But the mere fact that a legal tool might be available does not mean it should be used. The
current rage over Grassley's revelation shows why. Smith showed little restraint in his pursuit of a former president. He charged Trump for official acts he took as president. He sought a gag order to limit Trump's ability to criticize the prosecution. He tried to accelerate the case to try a leading presidential candidate before the 2024 election.

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Alt CDC (they/them) @altcdc.altgov.info · 11h

Oh look, vaccines work.

Scientific American @sciam.bsky.social · 12h

A new study shows that receiving an updated COVID vaccine reduced people’s risk of severe disease and death in all age groups, regardless of immunity from prior infection or vaccination

Annual COVID Vaccines Save Lives, New Study Shows

A new study shows that receiving an updated COVID vaccine reduced people’s risk of severe disease and death in all age groups, regardless of immunity from prior infection or vaccination

www.scientificamerican.com

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CajunBlueAZ ⚜️🇺🇸 🇺🇦 @cajunblue.bsky.social · 9h

🚨🚨🚨Chicago - NOW!🚨🚨🚨
1/2

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 8h

In Soviet America, Texas messes with *you*

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emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 1d

Make sure you read the report about how Stephen Miller deported Waco's favorite Mexican restaurant owner.

www.texastribune.org/2025/10/07/t...

A picture of Sergio Garcia and George W and Laura Bush. It is signed, To Sergio Garcia with best wishes.

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Philip Bump @pbump.com · 19h

I use archival images for my posts so that I don't have to 1) pay for good ones or 2) steal them or 3) use shitty AI ones, which means I do a lot of searches in the National Archives index for things like "FBI" which sometimes yield unusable but awesome images like this. Check out the hat!

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David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 19h

Trump wants credit for boosting the funding of HBCUs. But he's doing it by taking money from "Minority Serving Institutions," which enroll significant numbers of students from historically underrepresented groups. Robbing Peter to pay Paul. From Naomi Bethune:
prospect.org/education/tr...

Competing for Crumbs

While adding funding for historically Black colleges and universities, Trump’s Education Department is simultaneously cutting funding to colleges that primarily serve minorities.

prospect.org

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Gravel Influencer @gravelinfluencer.bsky.social · 21h

Not the main point, but this section on the Medicaid work requirements shows that the Republican model of "efficiency" is simply creating a ridiculous new bureaucracy that will force people off Medicaid.

To implement the program, CMS will have to create "rules engines" for software developers to be able to account for a person's time, he explained. "What are the rules for work hours? How do you have to actually adjudicate it? For example, what if you're paid a salary, but there's no hours on there? So we are going to adopt a process ... Maybe, for example, we'll divide the salary you have by $15 an hour ... and then we'll just give you credit for that many hours."

Another example: "What does it mean if you're at school 'halftime,' how many hours is that?" he added. "And then, if you're doing community engagement, who's allowed to credential you for community engagement? Do they have to be a 501(c)(3)? So we've been spending a lot of time on that."

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Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 21h

"It wanted to signal strength. Instead, it’s revealing its weakness. The administration’s need to break the academy is forcing it to make a desperately risky gamble." www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/o...

Opinion | You Beat Trumpism by Banding Together. It’s as Hard and as Simple as That.

www.nytimes.com

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 20h

i think it is cool that a government run by fanatical bigots is on track to plunge the economy into a mountain and cause a food crisis

David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 20h

So this is funny.
The administration just issued a rule slashing foreign agricultural worker wages. And to justify it, in a public filing, Trump's Labor Department alleges that Trump's immigration enforcement has devastated the Ag workforce and caused a "risk of supply shock-induced food shortages."

Trump Labor Department Says His Immigration Raids Are Causing a Food Crisis

In a filing in the Federal Register, the Labor Department argues there are “immediate dangers to the American food supply” due to a lack of migrant agricultural workers.

prospect.org

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fakelawn @fakelawn.bsky.social · 20h

People always say certain videos need to be spread everywhere, but this one really does need to be spread everywhere. #MAGApedophiles

Sanho Tree @sanho.bsky.social · 1d

Holy crap. Trump will make the FCC crucify Jimmy Kimmel for this.

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Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 20h

More good work by Greg Sargent

Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 21h

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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Scott in Montreal🇨🇦 @scottinmontreal.ca · 20h

<snip>“We call it the ‘Deport and Replace’ strategy,” De Loera-Brust said, “which is defined above all to make it easier for corporate agribusiness to exploit its workers, whether terrified undocumented residents or an unlimited pool of cheap foreign guest workers.</snip>

David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 20h

So this is funny.
The administration just issued a rule slashing foreign agricultural worker wages. And to justify it, in a public filing, Trump's Labor Department alleges that Trump's immigration enforcement has devastated the Ag workforce and caused a "risk of supply shock-induced food shortages."

Trump Labor Department Says His Immigration Raids Are Causing a Food Crisis

In a filing in the Federal Register, the Labor Department argues there are “immediate dangers to the American food supply” due to a lack of migrant agricultural workers.

prospect.org

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ae @aelkus.bsky.social · 20h

it does seem increasingly apparent that next year will be when things really unravel

JM Rieger @riegerreport.bsky.social · 20h

(Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday called for jailing Chicago's mayor and the governor of Illinois, both Democrats, as his administration prepared to deploy military troops to the streets of the third-largest U.S. city. www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...

www.reuters.com

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Adam "I Was Hoping We Could Keep It" Laats @adamlaats.bsky.social · 21h

Here is is, from Bryan Stevenson @eji.org.
What's wrong with "heroic history?"
"It’s like saying, 'I’m going to the doctor, but I’ve already instructed my doctor, Don’t give me any bad news' ... if you don’t want to be sick... you have to be willing to hear the truth of your condition."
[gift link]:

Civil Rights Lawyer Bryan Stevenson on How America’s Story Should Be Told

www.nytimes.com

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Nicholas Weaver @ncweaver.skerry-tech.com · 21h

Really starting to wonder if Nvidia is going to become a bigger scandal than Enron:
Where is Chewco in this diagram?

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Philip Bump @pbump.com · 21h

Portlandia is a central document of the American anti-fascist movement.

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 22h

#WarRavagedPortland

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Sanho Tree @sanho.bsky.social · 21h

Kazakhstan is one of the top 10 largest countries in the world. This presents a huge logistical problem for Russia.😈

NOELREPORTS @noelreports.com · 1d

One of Russia’s main supply routes from China has been shut down. From today, the border with Kazakhstan is fully stopped.. over 5,000 trucks are stuck, inspections are ongoing, and goods are being confiscated. Drones, EW gear, batteries, components, nothing is getting through.

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Mike Luckovich @mluckovich.bsky.social · 1d

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Jonathan V. Last @jvl.bsky.social · 1d

As alarmed as people may be, they aren't alarmed enough. Trump just escalated this crisis from a fight between the federal government and a state, to a situation where one state is deploying armed forces to impose its will on another state. www.thebulwark.com/p/emergency-...

Emergency Triad: The Chicago Rubicon and What Comes Next

We aren’t at the worst-case scenario yet. But if you squint, you can see it looming out there, just over the horizon.

www.thebulwark.com

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