Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 7h

I feel like this photo of masked, armed men pepper spraying a pastor protecting his community is going to be a defining picture of this moment in America for a long, long time.

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Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 18h

The health insurance industry doesn't care who you voted for — only how much money they can extract from you.

Insurance premiums are set to double, and Republicans shut down the government to make sure it happens.

Now is the time to demand universal healthcare with Medicare for All.

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Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 1d

“news that reflects reality”

The consolidation of media by right-wing oligarchs continues.

CBS News, WSJ, Fox News, Sinclair, WaPo, TikTok, X, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp — all controlled by Trump allies pushing a curated reality designed to legitimize Trump’s agenda.

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Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 1d

They’re lying because they want you to support them cutting your healthcare, and they want you to blame immigrants.

- undocumented immigrants aren’t eligible for Medicaid or the ACA

- 700 rural hospitals will close

- Health insurance premiums will double, or more

- 15 million will lose coverage

Fact Check: Mike Johnson's Biggest Lies About Health Care and Undocumented Immigrants

GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson pushes the false narrative that Democrats shut down the government to fund health care for undocumented people.

www.rollingstone.com

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Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 1d

They are not “going after illegals,” they are targeting brown people, because it’s not about immigration, it’s about white nationalism.

This isn’t “law and order” — it’s fascism.

Don’t let them pretend that what they’re doing is normal, legal, or moral.
popular.info/p/how-federa...

How federal agents are terrorizing American citizens

Last week, hundreds of heavily armed federal agents descended on an apartment complex in Chicago, arriving in Black Hawk helicopters and moving trucks.

popular.info

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Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 2d

Start charging AI companies, in full, for the energy they use and the pollution they cause, and they’ll quickly find a way to be more energy efficient and environmentally friendly.

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Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 2d

Companies profiting from ICE:

Amazon
AT&T
Motorola
Dell
Google
Microsoft
FedEx
UPS
Bank of America
Citizen's Bank

ICE’s abuses will never end because they are profit drivers for the companies donating to Trump for contracts, and boosting the stocks Congress invests in.

For-profit fascism.

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Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 3d

Ken Klippenstein deserves all of the credit for breaking this story a week ago, that the media is just starting to report on now. www.kenklippenstein.com/p/trumps-nsp...

Trump’s NSPM-7 Labels Common Beliefs As Terrorism “Indicators”

New directive targets “anti-Christian,” “anti-American,” and “anti-capitalism” opinions

www.kenklippenstein.com

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Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 3d

Trump’s message is clear:

If you defend immigrants, LGBTQ+, Black or brown people, or oppose billionaires and corporations exploiting us, or stand against his attacks on free speech and Democracy — you’ll be targeted as a terrorist.

This isn’t hyperbole.
It’s his directive.

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Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 6d

44% of Americans are paid less than a living wage, while a union-buster who pays poverty wages, and buys elections to get more tax breaks hits $500 billion.

Our system isn’t broken.
It’s working exactly how billionaires want it to work.

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Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 10d

Trump is directing his Sec of War to send troops, using full force, into a US city, to fight a siege he made up, being fought by a group that doesn’t exist.

He’s declaring war on Americans exercising their 1st amendment rights to speak out and protest his attacks on democracy.

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Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 11d

Don’t let Trump indicting Comey stop you from talking about Trump…

- cutting healthcare for 15M
- raising healthcare insurance premiums by 75%
- tariffs costing the average American $5200/ year
- getting a $400M jet as a bribe
- doubling his wealth off the presidency
- covering up the Epstein files

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Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 11d

The average middle class American earns $1.66 million in their lifetime.

Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Larry Ellison each “earn” an American Dream every 2 minutes.

The American Dream isn’t for us. It’s a fairy tale we’re told by those at the top to sell us on our own exploitation.

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Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 12d

Americans are already price gouged for their necessary medications.

Now Trump wants to make sure more Americans die and go into debt.

Absolutely sociopathic.

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Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 12d

It only took 248 days to get to “demanding and indicting political enemies.”

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Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 12d

At least 16 people have died in ICE custody so far this year.

At least 1,250 people detained by ICE are now missing.

Almost half of the people arrested by ICE have no criminal record.

This is fascism, and Trump made sure his oligarchs are profiting from it.

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Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 14d

Trump is currently forcing taxpayers to pay almost $1 billion to upgrade the private jet he received as a bribe from Qatar.

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Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 14d

TL;DR:
Republicans control Congress and the White House.
If the government shuts down, it means they can't govern in the majority.

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Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 14d

ICE is denying people due process, abducting and trafficking them to prison camps in random countries.

Abolishing ICE has always been the moral position.

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Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 14d

www.forbes.com/sites/alanoh...

Tesla’s Full-Self Driving Software Is A Mess. Should It Be Legal?

Elon Musk hypes the AI-enabled system, and getting more people to buy it is key to his new pay package. But in a recent test, it ignored some street signs and squashed a mannequin child.

www.forbes.com

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Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 14d

The federal agencies setting safety standards and investigating risks for Tesla’s self-driving cars, were gutted by Elon Musk and DOGE.

People thought DOGE was about cutting fraud and waste, when it was really about Elon spending $290M to kill investigations and regulations.

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Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 15d

Trump’s executive order designating ANTIFA as a domestic terrorist organization is worded so that anyone protesting ICE agents, filming or asking them for ID, or informing people of their rights, can be charged as a domestic terrorist.

This isn’t an attack on ANTIFA.
It’s an attack on our rights.

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Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 15d

The Trump family has nearly doubled their net worth since the election — profiting from the Presidency.

There's a reason why Trump fired the ethics watchdog who oversees conflicts of interest and corruption in the executive branch.

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Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 17d

“If we don’t measure food insecurity, no one’s hungry”

“If we delete research on right-wing violence, there’s no right-wing violence”

“If we don’t release inflation data, there’s no inflation”

“If we stop Covid testing, we’ll have fewer cases”

You see what’s happening, right?

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Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 17d

Trump has been looking for any excuse to target the "Left" for months, just like he was looking for any excuse to deploy the military to blue cities.

They just repeat the lies until people think they're facts, and have them boosted by right-wing media and social platforms.

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