Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

brendanamartin.bsky.social @brendanamartin.bsky.social · 1m

…And for a taste of how psychotic Earle-Sears is, and how hollow Republicans’ complaints are:

“…When running for lieutenant governor in 2021 (she) posed for an ad holding an assault-style rifle….

…and has called Spanberger “the angel of destruction”, who “will destroy everything that is good.” \4

brendanamartin.bsky.social @brendanamartin.bsky.social · 9m

…”’There’s no way [Republicans] can take the moral high ground when they have Donald Trump sitting in the Oval Office,’ Lamont Bagby, the chairman of the Democratic Party of Virginia and a state lawmaker, said in an interview. ‘Jay Jones will be our candidate and he will win.’”…\3

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brendanamartin.bsky.social @brendanamartin.bsky.social · 11m

…Heaven forfend we be hypocritical.

Cut people like this Bannon loose. I think Jones exhibited disqualifying behavior, but Miyares is a menace, unfit by every measure. Address Jones’s future after the election.

Meanwhile, the Democratic base shows fighting spirit:…\3

brendanamartin.bsky.social @brendanamartin.bsky.social · 15m

…Meanwhile, I want to know more about “Democratic strategist” Brad Bannon:

“Democrats should not tolerate Jones’s call for violence. Spanberger should cut him loose. My party would be hypocritical if they criticize Trump’s violent threats but tolerate rhetoric like that from one of our own.” \2

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brendanamartin.bsky.social @brendanamartin.bsky.social · 20m

Good on Democrats and Spanberger for largely ignoring and evading this embarrassing story—he’s already on the ballot, and even the Bezos Bee doesn’t have much stomach for Sears and Miyares (muted condemnation of Jones in lead editorial last week)…\1

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Democrats largely stand behind Jay Jones after violent texts

Amid concerns about political violence, some say the party risks looking hypocritical by sticking with the nominee for Virginia attorney general.

www.washingtonpost.com

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brendanamartin.bsky.social @brendanamartin.bsky.social · 25m

WaPo less gullible, though still not great:

bsky.app/profile/bren...

brendanamartin.bsky.social @brendanamartin.bsky.social · 39m

Virginia’s newest Rep., James Walkinshaw, calls bullshit:

“From the very beginning, when I saw the original memo that Vought put out threatening the mass firings or mass layoffs, it was clear to me that it was absolute bluster and BS….” \1

www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

Trump threatened shutdown layoffs. So far, he hasn’t followed through.

One week into a shutdown that shows no sign of ending, there’s also no sign of the dire consequences that President Donald Trump predicted.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Mark Lemley @marklemley.bsky.social · 36m

Chicago PD: arrest these motherfuckers threatening civilians. Put them in jail. Let the courts sort it out

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brendanamartin.bsky.social @brendanamartin.bsky.social · 29m

“…that she treats it mostly as background noise. She noted that Trump himself signed the law in 2019 guaranteeing pay for a shutdown.”

From another:

“This is stupid, even for them. The bar is in the basement, and they have managed to tunnel under it somehow.” \4

brendanamartin.bsky.social @brendanamartin.bsky.social · 29m

…Federal workers, in fact, do better journalism than the authors. It takes this one to even mention Trump’s 2019 back pay law:

“A furloughed (Ag Dept) staffer said it’s reached the point where Trump has promised to torment federal workers so often, in so many different ways,…” \3

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brendanamartin.bsky.social @brendanamartin.bsky.social · 35m

“…And by the way, the federal employees that I represent saw it as such as well.”

Meanwhile, while the overall reporting and sources aren’t bad, this is simultaneously credulous, tendentious, and evasive:

“…Many of the agencies ripe for cuts were already deconstructed by the U.S. DOGE Service….”\2

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brendanamartin.bsky.social @brendanamartin.bsky.social · 39m

Virginia’s newest Rep., James Walkinshaw, calls bullshit:

“From the very beginning, when I saw the original memo that Vought put out threatening the mass firings or mass layoffs, it was clear to me that it was absolute bluster and BS….” \1

www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

Trump threatened shutdown layoffs. So far, he hasn’t followed through.

One week into a shutdown that shows no sign of ending, there’s also no sign of the dire consequences that President Donald Trump predicted.

www.washingtonpost.com

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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 1h

WATCH: Trump’s lawless Ice goons shoot an unarmed priest in the head with a pepper ball. Completely out of control.

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brendanamartin.bsky.social @brendanamartin.bsky.social · 51m

“When Pam Bondi and Kash Patel had Jim Comey charged two weeks ago, they may have signed their own arrest warrants….

…The thing about irrational, increasingly unfit authoritarians guarded by an even more ruthless henchman is that demands for loyalty only keep going up.”

emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 1h

How Kash Patel and Pam Bondi became Slaves to Stephen Miller

www.emptywheel.net/2025/10/08/h...

How Kash Patel and Pam Bondi became Slaves to Stephen Miller - emptywheel

By indicting the first of Trump's FBI Directors and preparing to frame the second, Kash Patel may have signed his own arrest warrant.

www.emptywheel.net

brendanamartin.bsky.social @brendanamartin.bsky.social · 1h

pet peeve: calling defamatory incitement “conspiracy theory”

brendanamartin.bsky.social @brendanamartin.bsky.social · 1h

Filching a bunch from Fort Knox was a smart move.

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Sarah Posner @sarahposner.bsky.social · 1h

Texas bishop had brought Pope Leo a packet of letters from terrorized immigrant families

apnews.com/article/vati...

El Paso bishop brings Pope Leo XIV desperate letters from migrants in crosshairs of US crackdown

The Texas bishop on the front lines of the U.S. immigration crackdown has met with Pope Leo XIV in the Vatican.

apnews.com

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brendanamartin.bsky.social @brendanamartin.bsky.social · 8h

James Hohmann is still on the Opinions board, which is now anonymous, without a masthead. I guess he’ll end up on the top of the collaborator shitheap!

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Gillian Brockell @gbrockell.bsky.social · 9h

This little twerp, who’s been there a few months, axed two of the lions of WaPo??

Fisher is an investigative champion and had been at The Post for 39 years. Hoffman had been there for 42, and he won a Pulitzer LAST YEAR.

Oliver Darcy @oliverdarcy.bsky.social · 11h

Last week, new WaPo opinion editor Adam O'Neal quietly carried out another purge of staffers, cutting editors and major names like Marc Fisher and David Hoffman, among others.

Meanwhile, he welcomed three conservatives to the section.

Details in @status.news: www.status.news/p/washington...

Post Traumatic Disorder

Adam O’Neal says he’s bringing “intellectual diversity” to The Washington Post’s opinion pages—but the moves he’s making behind the scenes tell a different story.

www.status.news

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brendanamartin.bsky.social @brendanamartin.bsky.social · 8h

There’s obviously not a journalistic motive, but there’s not even a free market profit motive—just a speculative one of currying favor with the regime.

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Preorder Read This When Things Fall Apart @mskellymhayes.bsky.social · 18d

CW: protester being struck in the head by a pepper ball

Footage I took earlier of the moment Reverend David Black, a regular protester outside of the Broadview Detention Center, was shot in the head with a pepper ball by ICE agents on the roof of the facility.

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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 9h

Boston Globe. “Longstanding policy” is federal law passed in 2019. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/07/n...

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brendanamartin.bsky.social @brendanamartin.bsky.social · 10h

I know nothing about insignia. I just asked their permission to take their pictures.

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brendanamartin.bsky.social @brendanamartin.bsky.social · 11h

I agree, hence my respectful tone with them.

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MBR @flame89.bsky.social · 12h

Google has invested well over 50 billion dollars in the last couple of years on its AI products. Searches now take longer and use more energy. And it can’t give you answers that Google would have told you in a split second a couple of years ago.

Photo of a Google AI response saying that Charlie Chaplin couldn’t have seen The Godfather as he died in 1977 even though The Godfather was released in 1972.

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brendanamartin.bsky.social @brendanamartin.bsky.social · 11h

Ask it to sing “Daisy”.

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