Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Bob Neer @bobneer.com · 1d

🪖 "[A] monument to both good intentions and folly." #EmpireOfLiberty @columbiauniversity.bsky.social Dispatches From Afghanistan Show How the U.S. Lost Its Way — and the War www.nytimes.com/2025/08/12/b...

Dispatches From Afghanistan Show How the U.S. Lost Its Way — and the War

www.nytimes.com

Bob Neer @bobneer.com · 4d

🗽 Great news for news service and metropolis! @carrollbogert.bsky.social THE CITY Appoints Carroll Bogert as CEO of Award-Winning NYC News Nonprofit www.thecity.nyc/2025/09/30/c...

THE CITY Appoints Carroll Bogert as CEO of Award-Winning NYC News Nonprofit

Experienced media and nonprofit leader begins role on October 8.

www.thecity.nyc

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Bob Neer @bobneer.com · 4d

🗺️ Africa is bigger that it looks on most maps. www.voronoiapp.com/other/How-Ma...

How Many Countries Fit in Africa? Visualizing the Continent's True Size

Key Takeaways The continent of Africa covers 11.7 million mi² (30.4 million km²), roughly equal to the size of 30 countries. These 30 include some of t…

www.voronoiapp.com

Bob Neer @bobneer.com · 4d

🗽“If I can make it, then just don’t put a ‘do not enter sign’ in front of my path and make me have to not enter because I may have committed the mortal sin of being born female,” Colonel Wilder said." What Women Heard in Hegseth’s Remarks About Physical Standards www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/u...

What Women Heard in Hegseth’s Remarks About Physical Standards

www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Bob Neer

Universal Hub @universalhub.com · 5d

Appeals court rules children born here are citizens
www.universalhub.com/2025/appeals...
#Boston #lawsuits

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Bob Neer @bobneer.com · 19d

People will likely still try. We Can No Longer Tell Ourselves This Isn’t Really Happening www.nytimes.com/2025/09/19/o...

Opinion | We Can No Longer Tell Ourselves This Isn’t Really Happening

www.nytimes.com

Bob Neer @bobneer.com · 21d

📉 Time will tell. The Trump Fantasy Is Unraveling www.nytimes.com/2025/09/17/o...

Opinion | The Trump Fantasy Is Unraveling

www.nytimes.com

Bob Neer @bobneer.com · 23d

🗳️ NY's governor makes the case: "Mr. Trump has killed jobs and dragged down our economy with tariff tax hikes that make life more expensive for working families. He’s gutted Medicaid and food assistance …" Kathy Hochul: Why I Am Endorsing Zohran Mamdani www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/o...

Opinion | Kathy Hochul: Why I Am Endorsing Zohran Mamdani

www.nytimes.com

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Bob Neer @bobneer.com · 23d

🪖 War is changing. Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/w...

Russia Made Drone Production a Supreme Priority. Now It Swarms the Skies.

www.nytimes.com

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Bob Neer @bobneer.com · 24d

📜 The dead hand of the past. Jill Lepore Thinks the U.S. Constitution Might Break America www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/b...

Jill Lepore Thinks the U.S. Constitution Might Break America

www.nytimes.com

Bob Neer @bobneer.com · 24d

😷 Save money, stay healthy: vaccinate. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Opinion | Not vaccinating comes at an exorbitant cost

Agony and death are not all that shots prevent.

www.washingtonpost.com

Reposted by Bob Neer

Jeff Asher @jeffasher.bsky.social · 25d

Change in DC seated diners per month compared to same month the previous year, Aug 2024 - Sep 2025 (per OpenTable):

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Reposted by Bob Neer

JB Pritzker @jbpritzker.bsky.social · 25d

RFK Jr. is working to single-handedly dismantle the CDC. He’s ignoring decades of research and science to advance his own anti-vaccine agenda. He’s unqualified for the role, and his positions are deadly. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/07/u...

Kennedy, Rejecting Data, Fuels Distrust of His Own Agencies

www.nytimes.com

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Bob Neer @bobneer.com · 28d

🎓 Keep the US strong. p2a.co/08Euvjp

Take Action for International Education!

I just took action to increase funding for Title VI and Fulbright-Hays! Join me and take action here.

p2a.co

Bob Neer @bobneer.com · Sep 8

🇧🇷 "I’m hopeful that a multipolar world will give us candidates in the Global South that can end up, paradoxically, being the saviors of liberalism from those who have stood for its ideals in the last couple of centuries." @samuelmoyn.bsky.social www.stimson.org/2025/samuel-...

Samuel Moyn: Can Multipolarity Save Liberalism? • Stimson Center

Samuel Moyn, the Chancellor Kent Professor of Law and History at Yale University, joins us to discuss the philosophical underpinnings of liberalism, its role in international relations, and the possib...

www.stimson.org

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Bob Neer @bobneer.com · Sep 8

🇺🇸 "He understands better than most that nothing, not even history, is ever truly settled, not as long as there are people who might contort it." wapo.st/42dPQSg

Review | Race and American history, through the eyes of an eminent historian

Eric Foner’s essay collection “Our Fragile Freedoms” demonstrates how our understanding of the past can deepen and grow more sophisticated over time.

wapo.st

Bob Neer @bobneer.com · Sep 8

🇺🇸 "There is nothing “preordained” about American history, Foner insists in several essays." A Foremost Scholar of Slavery Wonders if America Can Ever Atone www.nytimes.com/2025/09/02/b...

A Foremost Scholar of Slavery Wonders if America Can Ever Atone

www.nytimes.com

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Bob Neer @bobneer.com · Sep 7

🧬 Good questions. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Opinion | I resigned from the CDC. Here are three questions for RFK Jr.

I’ve seen the secretary’s effect on public health policy firsthand.

www.washingtonpost.com

Bob Neer @bobneer.com · Sep 5

📡 "The more than twelve hundred pages of transcripts of the McCarthy hearings reviewed by CJR have a remarkably contemporary feel, showing just how little the rhetoric surrounding Voice of America has changed."
Joseph McCarthy’s War on Voice of America! 🦋 www.cjr.org/analysis/jos...

Joseph McCarthy’s War on Voice of America

A largely forgotten campaign of harassment and persecution from the 1950s that still echoes today.

www.cjr.org

Reposted by Bob Neer

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · Sep 5

About 1 in 4 U.S. adults worry they or someone close to them could be deported, according to a June @pewresearch.org survey.
www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...

About 1 in 4 U.S. adults worry they or someone close to them could be deported

About four-in-ten immigrants (43%) say they worry a lot or some, up from 33% in March.

www.pewresearch.org

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Reposted by Bob Neer

Nick Turse @nickturse.bsky.social · Sep 5

Pentagon Official: Trump Boat Strike Was a Criminal Attack on Civilians

A current DoD official and many military legal experts say the U.S. attack on a boat in the Caribbean near Venezuela broke international law.

theintercept.com/2025/09/05/p...

Pentagon Official: Trump Boat Strike Was a Criminal Attack on Civilians

A current DoD official and many military legal experts say the U.S. attack on a boat in the Caribbean near Venezuela broke international law.

theintercept.com

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Bob Neer @bobneer.com · Sep 5

🇺🇸 "Liberation Day" set the world on the road to greater freedom from US dominance. Decline and Fall of the American Empire open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...

Decline and Fall of the American Empire

Alliances were what made us great

open.substack.com

Bob Neer @bobneer.com · Sep 5

📚 "In the half-century since Milliken, the Supreme Court, as well as the evolving structure of the American economy, has made those kinds of public schools only harder to find. 'The Containment' explains why." [January 2025] How the Dream of School Integration Died www.nytimes.com/2025/01/13/b...

How the Dream of School Integration Died

www.nytimes.com

Bob Neer @bobneer.com · Sep 5

🎁 Many countries are returning to hereditary aristocracies. [March 2025] www.economist.com/leaders/2025...

Inheriting is becoming nearly as important as working

More wealth means more money for baby-boomers to pass on. That is dangerous for capitalism and society

www.economist.com

Bob Neer @bobneer.com · Sep 5

🧑‍🎓 "Free inquiry is one of the cornerstones of American liberty, along with the freedom to criticise the president without fear of retribution." [April 2025] www.economist.com/leaders/2025...

MAGA’s remaking of universities could have dire consequences

For higher education, innovation, prosperity and freedom

www.economist.com