Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 1m

I am not a religious person in any sense of the word, but where I was raised the correct sentiment in response to Mr Rupar doing the Lord's work by bringing us such unpleasant news (mining the muck, one might say) on the regular would be, "Bless you, sir, for your efforts. That's filthy work to do."

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1h

Mike Johnson: "If you're a young, pregnant American citizen women who shows up in an ER and you get treated and they pay the hospital less for treating you than some illegal rabble rouser who came in from some South American country to do us harm, that is wrong."

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Sarah Posner @sarahposner.bsky.social · 26m

what

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1h

Mike Johnson: "If you're a young, pregnant American citizen women who shows up in an ER and you get treated and they pay the hospital less for treating you than some illegal rabble rouser who came in from some South American country to do us harm, that is wrong."

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Angus Johnston @angus.bsky.social · 26m

Expect Cuomo to continue tacking to the right for the next month—Curtis Sliwa's votes are all the votes he still has a chance to get.

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 41m

Andrew Cuomo will announce a proposal on Wednesday to scrap the plan to close the Rikers Island jail complex in New York City if elected mayor, saying he would rebuild the jails and not relocate detainees to new borough-based jail facilities.

Cuomo Calls for Rebuilding Rikers Island and Keeping the Jails Open

Former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo wants to ditch New York City’s plan to replace the Rikers Island jail complex and use the sites for the proposed borough-based jails for affordable housing.

nyti.ms

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Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 4m

As so often, it's how we get here, so I recommend following this one all the way back to the beginning.

Faine Greenwood @faineg.bsky.social · 25m

i got thoroughly frisked by a horse just this weekend which is both hilarious and unnerving

Scoiattolo @offline.mountainherder.xyz · 39m

Some horses will frisk you so it’s a suckers game to try and hide it

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Dave Weigel @daveweigel.bsky.social · 38m

O'Neal is pushing "The Post into video podcasting, according to people familiar with the matter, aiming to launch a show hosted by Megan McArdle next month and a flagship program in January. The marquee show, I’m told, will be helmed by O’Neal himself."

Oliver Darcy @oliverdarcy.bsky.social · 13h

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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Sarah Posner @sarahposner.bsky.social · 22m

There are a few ways to read this piece, but my way is that top Trump regime officials know he is very weak with the public on Epstein and his lawless crackdown on immigrants

www.wired.com/story/trump-...

Trumpworld's Least Favorite Cabinet Secretaries

“Worst, Bondi,” they begin. “2.) Bondi. 3.) Bondi. 4.) Bondi. 5.) HegsethRFKTulsiNoem.”

www.wired.com

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Faine Greenwood @faineg.bsky.social · 21m

Elon Musk and Donald Trump are now some of history's biggest murderers.

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 1h

The elimination of USAID is a moral atrocity and all involved made a choice to enable, and then lie about, ending the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in the world.

MAE SOT, Thailand (AP) - Mohammed Taher clutched the lifeless body of his 2-year-old son and wept. Ever since his family's food rations stopped arriving at their internment camp in Myanmar in April, the father had watched helplessly as his once-vibrant baby boy weakened, suffering from diarrhea and begging for food.
On May 21, exactly two weeks after Taher's little boy died, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio sat before Congress and declared: "No one has died" because of his government's decision to gut its foreign aid program. Rubio also insisted: "No children are dying on my watch."
That, Taher says, "is a lie."

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Sarah Posner @sarahposner.bsky.social · 20m

"I think it is statutory law"

It IS.

He's the fucking Speaker of the House and he can't say that definitively?

Jennifer Shutt @jennifershutt.bsky.social · 1h

Speaker Johnson appears to say furloughed federal workers should get back pay under 2019 law

"It has always been the case. It is tradition and I think it is statutory law that federal employees be paid. And that’s my position."

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 18m

really can’t say enough about how mike johnson is a sniveling little coward of a man. a bayou-bred pushover with a dignity deficit that would embarrass renfield

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1h

Q: Do you agree that the mayor of Chicago and governor of Illinois should be in prison?

MIKE JOHNSON: Should they be in prison? I'm not the attorney general. I'm not following the day to day on that

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En Buen Ora @enbuenora.bsky.social · 18m

Is PBS pre-kneeling to Trumpist ideology by taming American history in a manner acceptable to the new far right censors? I.e., in the same way national parks now hide slavery references? Even AFTER they've already lost funding?

youtu.be/GAKX0VDh9TY

Is PBS Okay?: "Masterpiece History" Might Be Erasing Slavery From The American Revolution

YouTube video by Tad Stoermer

youtu.be

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Sarah Posner @sarahposner.bsky.social · 17m

Mike Johnson, always submitting to the authority of Trump

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1h

Q: Do you agree that the mayor of Chicago and governor of Illinois should be in prison?

MIKE JOHNSON: Should they be in prison? I'm not the attorney general. I'm not following the day to day on that

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C. Henry @henryhenryhenry.com · 24m

so, too, does the time horizon change. elections are no longer the single focus point; there will be many emergent events that require election-like mobilization responses, and unfortunately the state has deep agenda setting power here, typically through the use of repression.

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C. Henry @henryhenryhenry.com · 24m

if you're in the US context, it's time to shift your idea of "mobilization" from GOTV and fundraising to more kinetic and immediate audience actions: supplying information to different groups and contesting physical spaces.

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C. Henry @henryhenryhenry.com · 24m

this is a good thread that finally reckons with the more primordial politics at play. there is a long, rich research tradition in conflict studies about the behavior of and strategy towards influencing audiences - by state security forces, by non-state armed actors. they all apply in the US now.

Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 3h

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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Comfortably Numb @numb.comfortab.ly · 15m

That's Claude Sonnet 4.5, the latest model from Anthropic, "...designed for complex agents, coding, and long-running tasks with enhanced reasoning and computer use capabilities."

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Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 51m

Relatedly, this @brianbeutler.bsky.social idea of the "median experience of tyranny" is a good way to say that while majorities oppose the lawbreaking/abuses of power, Miller is banking on the middle lacking deep conviction about all of it (as I suggest)

www.offmessage.net/p/the-median...

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Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 3h

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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emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 50m

You will not defeat fascism if you don't peel off soft supporters. You simply won't do it.

At least some of these guys look Latino anyway, and we know Latino voters in TX are moving.

But literally, these people will go w/o pay for weeks. That's pretty persuasive.

John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 56m

OT1H, this is likely the right way to think abt the politics. Being in LA demoralized the Cal NatGuard; this deployment can be used to weaken Trump’s authoritarian push too.

OTOH, TX went 56-42 for Trump, bet higher Trump % in NatGuard. If they’re “pawns,” it’s in a game they voted to play.

emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 1h

This is an important point.

Everyone one of these people has been asked to leave their home, their family, and their job to work without pay bc of the shutdown. We're better off thinking of ways to make this backfire on Abbott than to treat them poorly.

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John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 56m

OT1H, this is likely the right way to think abt the politics. Being in LA demoralized the Cal NatGuard; this deployment can be used to weaken Trump’s authoritarian push too.

OTOH, TX went 56-42 for Trump, bet higher Trump % in NatGuard. If they’re “pawns,” it’s in a game they voted to play.

emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 1h

This is an important point.

Everyone one of these people has been asked to leave their home, their family, and their job to work without pay bc of the shutdown. We're better off thinking of ways to make this backfire on Abbott than to treat them poorly.

Ben Raderstorf @raders.bsky.social · 10h

Texas National Guard troops arriving in Chicago (via ABC News)

Remember: These are not MAGA stormtroopers. These are everyday teachers and accountants who signed up to serve their country with their spare time. They're being used as political pawns by venal, un-American, draft-dodging president

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emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 1h

This is an important point.

Everyone one of these people has been asked to leave their home, their family, and their job to work without pay bc of the shutdown. We're better off thinking of ways to make this backfire on Abbott than to treat them poorly.

Ben Raderstorf @raders.bsky.social · 10h

Texas National Guard troops arriving in Chicago (via ABC News)

Remember: These are not MAGA stormtroopers. These are everyday teachers and accountants who signed up to serve their country with their spare time. They're being used as political pawns by venal, un-American, draft-dodging president

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Ed Burmila @edburmila.bsky.social · 45m

It's not going to matter much in the coming years if a Democrat supports Policy X over Policy Y; the divide will be between people who understand how American politics have changed and people who think we're one good congressional softball game away from being friends and governing buddies again.

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Micah @rincewind.run · 1h

that donald trump was allowed to become president again after J6 is something we may never recover from as a nation

Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 1h

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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Ed Burmila @edburmila.bsky.social · 48m

The key divide in the Democratic Party during Trump II is between people who want to turn the clock back to 2014 and people who recognize a clean break with the past when they see one. "Let's get back to the way things were" isn't a viable vision for the future and some people have no other.

Seentoomuch @seentoomuch.bsky.social · 1h

That our current system was unable to prevent this is a sign it probably should not recover

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 41m

i desperately want everyone involved in the destruction of USAID to have to, st the very least, answer to the american people for the suffering and misery they have caused apnews.com/article/myan...

Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said “no one has died" because of his government’s decision to gut its foreign aid program.

apnews.com

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Faine Greenwood @faineg.bsky.social · 41m

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