Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Clifton Lee @cliftonlee.bsky.social · 3h

Any Magaist-Republican lawmaker, a glamorized version of DJT, or a depiction of the 'antichrist' in one of proto-theocrats Tim Lahaye's 'Left Behind' graphic novels? YTM.

Reposted by Clifton Lee

Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 9h

I will not back down.

Trump is now calling for the arrest of elected representatives checking his power.

What else is left on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?

Donald Trump Truth Social Post: Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers! Governor Pritzker also.

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Reposted by Clifton Lee

Carl Hoffman @carlhoffman.bsky.social · 9h

Absurd as everything this admin does. And per usual just complete ignorance. Anyone interested in Amelia should read @lauriestories.bsky.social new book The Aviator and The Showman.

Clifton Lee @cliftonlee.bsky.social · 19h

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣😭😭😭😭😭😭whut da fuck? We are beyond an Idiocracy.... Cc: @carlhoffman.bsky.social

CNN @cnn.com · 22h

The Trump administration has ordered FBI employees in Washington, DC, to immediately search their workstations and digital media for any records pertaining to the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, a law enforcement source told CNN.

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Clifton Lee @cliftonlee.bsky.social · 16h

In my sporadic sleep tonight - still a few hours to go - I had a rather strange dream. It was a version of Hitchcock's film 'Rope' but the two guys were Stephen Miller and Curtis Yarvin. This somehow morphed into Miller and Rod Dreher in an absurd sitcom as roommates in Budapest.

Reposted by Clifton Lee

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 22h

thank you brett kavanaugh!

Daniel Knowles @dlknowles.bsky.social · 22h

Good reporting on the South Shore raid from South Side weekly here.

Confirms one thing I was told but didn't put in my own piece because I didn't have a second source and it seemed too insane: border agents segregated arrested residents by race

southsideweekly.com/federal-agen...

Federal Agents Storm South Shore Building, Detaining Families and Children

Families were woken by flashbangs and helicopters as hundreds of federal agents raided their homes. Days later, neighbors are still searching for the missing.

southsideweekly.com

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Reposted by Clifton Lee

Carl Hoffman @carlhoffman.bsky.social · Aug 25

Freedom, in the American context, has always meant the freedom to make bank at pretty much anyone’s expense.... My review of Deadwood: Gold, Guns, and Greed in the American West for The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com @bookcritics.bsky.social

www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/0...

Review | The bloody, muddy true story of the real Deadwood

In his history of the legendary South Dakota gold rush town, Peter Cozzens explains how miners, outlaws, gamblers and other reprobates helped shape America.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Reposted by Clifton Lee

Carl Hoffman @carlhoffman.bsky.social · 11d

Congrats. I love True Nature and couldn’t agree more.

Lance Richardson @lancerichardson.bsky.social · 11d

Floored by this review of my book by Pico Iyer. Gosh.

The Life and Travels of Peter Matthiessen, Revisited

A new book sheds fresh light on the "Snow Leopard" author, from his founding of "The Paris Review" with George Plimpton to working for the C.I.A. to his many affairs.

airmail.news

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Clifton Lee @cliftonlee.bsky.social · 19h

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣😭😭😭😭😭😭whut da fuck? We are beyond an Idiocracy.... Cc: @carlhoffman.bsky.social

CNN @cnn.com · 22h

The Trump administration has ordered FBI employees in Washington, DC, to immediately search their workstations and digital media for any records pertaining to the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, a law enforcement source told CNN.

FBI employees ordered to immediately search for records related to Amelia Earhart, source says | CNN Politics

The Trump administration has ordered FBI employees in Washington, DC, to immediately search their workstations and digital media for any records pertaining to the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, a la...

www.cnn.com

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Clifton Lee @cliftonlee.bsky.social · 19h

It was to be expected and it is here. It will get worse as we approach the midterms.

Blue states would do well to withhold funds from what once was the US federal government.

Clifton Lee @cliftonlee.bsky.social · 19h

Banish the word conservative from the lexicon as descriptors of the Magaist-Republican party. As they attack Chicago and Portland, it should be clear there is nothing conservative in these assaults. It is reactionary and performative fascist violence...

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Reposted by Clifton Lee

John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 20h

Um, ICE just coldly shot an unarmed PRIEST in the head w a pepper ball when he (and everyone around him) clearly posed no threat.

For the crime of … complaining about government policy.

Core 1A speech.

With cameras rolling, they’re sniping priests for sport.

Kurt @flglchicago.bsky.social · 22h

Here’s video of the incident

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Reposted by Clifton Lee

Jonathan V. Last @jvl.bsky.social · 20h

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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Clifton Lee @cliftonlee.bsky.social · 20h

Turns out, contra Tears for Fears, everybody does not want to rule the world. Only a few white guys working out their mental health issues by holding the whole world hostage as part of their therapy. Still, good song. www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGCd...

Tears For Fears - Everybody Wants To Rule The World (Official Music Video)

YouTube video by TearsForFearsVEVO

www.youtube.com

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Clifton Lee @cliftonlee.bsky.social · 21h

Starting a new band, 'Collective Denial.' Auditions in Portland and Chicago. (Image: Paris Metro, circa 2015.)

It was raining above ground. I believe I took this image at the Paris Metro La Republique stop. Image not related to our present crisis. I've drained the image of color, made it grainy and bleached out... A group of people are standing around looking at their mobiles and waiting for the rain to stop. Only two or three people are actually not looking at phones, of about a dozen people or so.

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Clifton Lee @cliftonlee.bsky.social · 1d

Indeed. Remarkable, really. Do you know the Czech-French filmmaker Stan Neuman's early oughts doc based on Klemperer's writings? It's on YouTube, which auto-translates if need be from the French. www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-4d...

Victor klemperer : LTI (Langue du 3e Reich) la langue ne ment pas

YouTube video by E-stoire

www.youtube.com

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Clifton Lee @cliftonlee.bsky.social · 1d

Remind you of anyone?

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Clifton Lee @cliftonlee.bsky.social · 1d

..and military service he sees principally, indeed exclusively, in terms of a training to achieve maximum physical potential. For Hitler, the development of character quite explicitly has to take second place..."
- V. Klemperer, Language of The Third Reich, Introduction, 1946

Clifton Lee @cliftonlee.bsky.social · 1d

Remind you of anyone?
"Whenever Hitler’s Mein Kampf sets out general principles of education, the physical aspect is always by far the most important.he loves the expression ‘körperliche Ertüchtigung {physical training}’...

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Clifton Lee @cliftonlee.bsky.social · 1d

Maybe we are living in an anime film. Pencil neck/eraserhead boy controls masked-face steroid-pumped goons who destroy everything & everyone that made him angry as a twelve year old, while boy's surrogate father stuffs dollars & bitcoins in underground vault preparing for future that doesn't exist.

Clifton Lee @cliftonlee.bsky.social · 1d

Now do grad and post grad American students exiting the US. Magaism is not draining any swamps - that was done in the 1870s - but it sure as hell is intent on brain drain.

The Upshot @upshot.nytimes.com · 2d

The decline is occurring as the Trump administration has delayed visa processing, instituted travel bans or restrictions for 19 countries, threatened to deport international students for pro-Palestinian speech, and heightened the vetting of student visa applicants.

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Nearly 20 Percent Fewer International Students Traveled to the U.S. in August

The data shows the steepest decline in August international student arrivals since the pandemic.

www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Clifton Lee

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 2d

International student arrivals to the US dropped 19% this year, the biggest drop on record aside from the 2020 pandemic low.

The Upshot @upshot.nytimes.com · 2d

The decline is occurring as the Trump administration has delayed visa processing, instituted travel bans or restrictions for 19 countries, threatened to deport international students for pro-Palestinian speech, and heightened the vetting of student visa applicants.

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Nearly 20 Percent Fewer International Students Traveled to the U.S. in August

The data shows the steepest decline in August international student arrivals since the pandemic.

www.nytimes.com

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Clifton Lee @cliftonlee.bsky.social · 2d

Klemperer was Jewish. Klemperer goes on to say that eventually the Strafepexpeditions, and the word itself, was subsumed by far graver acts of violence and terror on those the regime deemed as the other.

Strafexpedition. Punitive expeditions. That is what these assault in US cities are.

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Clifton Lee @cliftonlee.bsky.social · 2d

T. was a student Klemperer and his wife had taken under their care before the rise of HItler. T. did not take the Reich's rhetoric about 'the Jews' seriously, and eventually joined the Reich...

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Clifton Lee @cliftonlee.bsky.social · 2d

"For me the word Strafexpedition was the embodiment of brutal
arrogance and contempt for people who are in any way different, it sounded so colonial, you could see the encircled [African village], you could hear the cracking of the hippopotamus whip..."

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Clifton Lee @cliftonlee.bsky.social · 2d

"Strafexpedition {punitive expedition} is the first term which I
recognized as being specifically national Socialist, it was the very first of my LTI and is the very last word I heard from T.; I hung up without even bothering to refuse the invitation...

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