Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Raffle Victor Solis ❌👑 @tacomentarian.bsky.social · 3h

Good read about Miller's strategy to push propaganda until the middle of America sleepwalks into accepting an autocracy:

Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 9h

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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David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 7h

So this is funny.
The administration just issued a rule slashing foreign agricultural worker wages. And to justify it, in a public filing, Trump's Labor Department alleges that Trump's immigration enforcement has devastated the Ag workforce and caused a "risk of supply shock-induced food shortages."

Trump Labor Department Says His Immigration Raids Are Causing a Food Crisis

In a filing in the Federal Register, the Labor Department argues there are “immediate dangers to the American food supply” due to a lack of migrant agricultural workers.

prospect.org

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Costa Samaras @costasamaras.com · 19h

A shameful continued destruction of the innovation engine of the United States. For nothing! For no reason!

Emily Pontecorvo @emilypont.bsky.social · 22h

Some additional info on the new list of axed DOE projects circulating.
- All 7 H2 Hubs
- All 13 IRA grants to convert at-risk auto plants to EV mfg
- 11 of 15 grants to speed domestic clean energy mfg in former coal communities
- 10 of 38 grants for battery materials
heatmap.news/politics/doe...

Trump to Axe All 7 Hydrogen Hubs, Bucking Bipartisan Law

A new list of Department of Energy grants slated for termination will hit clean energy and oil majors alike, including Exxon and Chevron.

heatmap.news

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digby @digby56.bsky.social · 4h

You can't blame the world. We are more unstable than we've been since 1860. Anything could happen.

Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 8h

I’ve been worried a lot that this is right. Gold is skyrocketing in value because the world is losing faith in the role of US as guarantor/backstop of global economy open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...

Ingots We Trust

Are soaring gold prices telling us something important?

open.substack.com

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digby @digby56.bsky.social · 4h

Setting aside the crude racism, wtf is he talking about???

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 6h

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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The Provost / سيدة الفتنة @msentropy.bsky.social · 1d

Please amplify, those with a bigger platform than me.

It’s horrifying that the person running the US Homeland Security Twitter uses — and clearly knows — the exact same aesthetics, memes, and propaganda from fashwave, accelerationist, and Nazi Telegram.

It says everything about where we are.

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John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 18h

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 · 20h

Here’s video of the incident

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Anthony Michael Kreis @anthonymkreis.bsky.social · 17h

File state charges. This is a crime.

Kurt @flglchicago.bsky.social · 20h

Here’s video of the incident

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southpaw @nycsouthpaw.bsky.social · 1d

“No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law.”

George Pearkes @peark.es · 1d

Well that's not how appropriations work at all

*WHITE HOUSE TO TRANSFER TARIFF REVENUE TO FUND WIC: LEAVITT

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digby @digby56.bsky.social · 18h

The count ended at 5:59 a.m. Eastern Time on October 16, 2020.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Un...

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Tommy Tuberville on the 2020 census: "The Democrats were letting illegals come in for a different count. They obviously had a census going that was all rigged. The 2020 election basically was rigged."

(Believe it or not, Donald Trump was president in 2020.)

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emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 20h

One point I made about the shutdown is that a lot of what Schumer and Jeffries are doing is not for YOU, but for annoying beltway journalists who see this as a competition but whose reporting actually matters to their colleagues.

Voila: "Republicans in disarray"

www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

Trump's off-script comments cause shutdown headaches for GOP

President Donald Trump, Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune are straining to project a united front against Democrats.

www.politico.com

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madamjujujive @madamjujujive.bsky.social · 20h

Watching a recap of the Bondi hearing from @chrislhayes.bsky.social who characterized her responses today as “performative truculence.”

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digby @digby56.bsky.social · 20h

Adam Schiff is Stanford undergrad and Harvard Law. Pam Bondi is University of Florida undergrad and Stetson school of law.

Just setting the record straight since she obnoxiously asked Schiff if he has a law degree today.

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digby @digby56.bsky.social · 1d

If they are not lawful (and they aren't) what happens then?

Ryan Goodman @rgoodlaw.bsky.social · 1d

"At the Pentagon, some military lawyers, including international law experts within DoD’s Office of General Counsel, have raised concerns about the legality of the lethal strikes on suspected drug traffickers....

Multiple current and former JAGs ... told CNN that the strikes do not appear lawful."

Exclusive: Classified Justice Department opinion authorizes strikes on secret list of cartels, sources say | CNN Politics

The Trump administration has produced a classified legal opinion that justifies lethal strikes against a secret and expansive list of cartels and suspected drug traffickers, according to multiple peop...

www.cnn.com

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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 1d

this is a very very big story because of the apparently totally fake story ICE/DHS put out about what happened.

Chicago Sun-Times @chicago.suntimes.com · 1d

Body-camera video appears to contradict the government’s claim that Marimar Martinez, 30, drove toward officers before one of them opened fire at her late Saturday morning in Brighton Park, her attorney claimed.
trib.al/9Sxu9IN

Attorney for woman shot by Border Patrol claims officer said 'Do something b-----' before shooting

Body-camera video appears to contradict the government's claim that Marimar Martinez, 30, drove toward officers before one of them opened fire at her late Saturday morning in Brighton Park, her attorney claimed. A judge ordered Martinez and a co-defendant released pending trial.

trib.al

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Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 1d

"In the charges filed Sunday, prosecutors notably did not mention a loaded gun in Martinez’s car that was referenced in a previous statement by the Department of Homeland Security."

Chicago Sun-Times @chicago.suntimes.com · 1d

Body-camera video appears to contradict the government’s claim that Marimar Martinez, 30, drove toward officers before one of them opened fire at her late Saturday morning in Brighton Park, her attorney claimed.
trib.al/9Sxu9IN

Attorney for woman shot by Border Patrol claims officer said 'Do something b-----' before shooting

Body-camera video appears to contradict the government's claim that Marimar Martinez, 30, drove toward officers before one of them opened fire at her late Saturday morning in Brighton Park, her attorney claimed. A judge ordered Martinez and a co-defendant released pending trial.

trib.al

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digby @digby56.bsky.social · 2d

The ChatGPT version is better.

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Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 5d

Everyone should listen to Chris Murphy's extraordinary warning about Trump on our pod. First, he says the logic must be that the more lawless he gets, the stiffer the resistance.

"If I give in and consent to these kinds of tactics then it just normalizes it all." 1/

newrepublic.com/article/2013...

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digby @digby56.bsky.social · 2d

I'm trying very hard not to second guess the DC Democrats.They don't have real institutional power and these subsidies are important to people. But it's surreal to see this normal policy argument on the split screen with the President sending an invasion force to American cities.

It's disorienting.

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digby @digby56.bsky.social · 2d

I wonder if the Supreme Court justices ever watch these things? If they do, do you think they nod their heads and think to themselves, "he's right?" I'd bet money that at least three of them do. Maybe 6. They live in that bubble too.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

CNN: Isn't that hyperbolic to call them terrorists?

STEPHEN MILLER: No. If anything I'm understating the severity of the situation

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Simon Rosenberg @simonwdc.bsky.social · 2d

Stephen Miller is a dangerous madman living in a world of his own making. I really can’t believe there isn’t more discourse around the madness we are witnessing each day.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

Stephen Miller claims that in Portland "ICE officers have to street battles against antifa, hand to hand combat every night, to come and go from their building"

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digby @digby56.bsky.social · 2d

Jesus, they're really going with this nonsense that you need to kick people off the rolls who didn't make any claims? Many people don't make claims for years ... until they need to.That's what insurance is for!

Leah Friedman @televisionarie.bsky.social · 2d

"people who didn't know they had insurance" like it's some random apple subscription for $2.99/month that you're too tired to investigate

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

Dr Oz: "Some of the reasons that premiums are going up is because if you take people who didn't know they had insurance and therefore never put in any claims off the rolls, then you still have people who are charging enough to make up the difference. But I do think there are criminal elements."

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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 2d

Abbott egged on the Jade Helm conspiracists, who claimed that a military training operation was actually Obama invading the state of Texas.

Now a U.S. president is deploying Texas troops to other states to dominate and intimidate those states, and Abbott is complicit.

Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 2d

I call on Governor Abbott to immediately withdraw any support for this decision and refuse to coordinate. There is no reason a President should send military troops into a sovereign state without their knowledge, consent, or cooperation.

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Bradley P. Moss @bradmossesq.bsky.social · 2d

Texas proudly invading Illinois.

It’s hard to describe the level of potential constitutional crisis here.

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digby @digby56.bsky.social · 2d

See? They're "making the government more efficient" (firing mass numbers of people) whether the government is open or not. They're proud of it and they'll keep doing it regardless of the shutdown.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

Hassett: "For sure we're gonna continue to want to make govt more efficient, but right now this particular moment is about keeping the govt open. And if the Democrats refuse to keep the govt open, then perhaps the efforts we're been making to make government more efficient will even accelerate."

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