Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Jeremy Pressman @djpressman.bsky.social · 6h

“The people who they are deporting are the people who are positive influences to America,” said one interviewee in a @nytimes.com story sharing survey results.

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Karen Attiah @karenattiah.bsky.social · 6h

Columbia cancelled my class on race and media, and Washington Post fired me for speaking about race..

But I’m teaching (again) and speaking anyway.

Behind the scenes of rehearsal for the Fall cohort of Race, Media and International Affairs.

600+ students this fall.

We move! ✊🏾

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Brian Finucane @bcfinucane.bsky.social · 7h

As the nominee to be Army GC pushed the specious notion that strikes in the Caribbean are akin to those in the "war on terror," I'm reposting my essay from @justsecurity.org.

No armed attack like 9/11.

No congressional AUMF.

No armed conflict.

Not the same.

www.justsecurity.org/120568/carib...

Asserting a License to Kill: Why the Caribbean Strike is a Dangerous Departure from the “War on Terror”

An absence of credible legal basis for the Caribbean strike suggests the Trump admin is asserting a prerogative to kill outside the law.

www.justsecurity.org

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Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 23h

Happening right now. To us. In America.

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Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 23h

Gonna be thinking about this lede for a minute.

(RNS) — Last month, the Rev. David Black stood in front of a Chicago-area U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility and spread his arms wide. Adorned in all black and wearing a clerical collar, the pastor looked up at a group of masked, heavily armed ICE agents on the roof and began to pray.

“I invited them to repentance,” Black, a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), said in an interview. “I basically offered an altar call. I invited them to come and receive that salvation, and be part of the kingdom that is coming.”

But when Black began to lower his arms a few seconds later, the agents responded to his spiritual plea by firing pepper balls, or chemical agents that cause eye irritation and respiratory distress, video footage shows. One struck Black in the head, exploding into a puff of white pepper smoke and forcing him to his knees. Fellow demonstrators rushed to his aid, and as the pastor rubbed his face in pain, the agents continued to fire.

“We could hear them laughing,” Black said.

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emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 1d

My post on that.

www.emptywheel.net/2025/10/01/a...

The Shutdown Will Make Trump's Theory of Government-ICE but No Healthcare-Visible - emptywheel

No one knows how this shutdown will go. It truly is unlike any shutdown that has gone before. But it will serve to make the reality of Trump's abuse of power visible in a way that has not fully happen...

www.emptywheel.net

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JVG 骨 @jasonv.bsky.social · 8d

Absolute all-timer sentence in today's @nytimes.com

"some legal experts have called it a crime to summarily execute civilians" says today's New York Times, continuing their long tradition of whitewashing fascism

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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 21d

Mike Johnson. John Thune. Susan Collins. Lisa Murkowski. Total free passes. The GOP, as a political party, & the leaders in charge of Congress, amidst unprecedented corruption & fascist lawbreaking, don't even exist to the people on the NYT op-ed page. They literally are not actors in 🇺🇸 politics.

Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · Sep 8

Again let's repeat: "it would take only 4 GOP Senators, or 6 to 7 Representatives, to save the country"

Fine, with filibuster/impeachment hurdles, say 30

Why is everyone in the media laser-focused on What Democrats Must Do? Stop giving those 10-30 Republicans free passes:

bsky.app/profile/mcop...

James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · Sep 8

Some numbers:

-Most Americans are women.

-Via the Census, about 60 million Americans are in a household that includes a daughter.

-Every American, or human being, should be appalled and disgusted by this.

It would take only 4 GOP Senators, or 6 to 7 Representatives, to save the country.

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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 21d

As always, there are zero demands, expectations, or criticisms of the far right authoritarians. Only Democrats/The Left/Those Liberal Academics Must (Not) Do Things. No one else has agency in 🇺🇸 politics, least of all the party/people overseeing the worst Article I constitutional crisis in history.

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 9d

Pritzker: "People of Illinois, we need your help. Get our your cell phones, record and narrate what you see. Put it on social media. Peacefully ask for badge numbers and identification. Speak up for your neighbors. We need to let the world know that this is happening and that we won't stand for it."

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Matt Cameron @mattcameron.bsky.social · 8d

hey @nytimes.com: there is no counterpoint here. There are no credible legal experts who would EVER say that the US military has any right or authority to blow civilian craft out of the Caribbean and kill their crews from afar without any provocation. There is no other side to this question.

"Some legal experts have called it a crime to summarily kill civilians not directly taking part in hostilities, even if they are believed to be smuggling drugs."

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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 8d

I fully understand how difficult it is to remain focused on any one particular atrocity but this really ought to be a serious scandal and people need to pay heavy prices for this

Michael Paarlberg @mpaarlberg.bsky.social · 9d

I think the Trump admin assumed no one would try to find out who the people on the boats they blew up really were

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Jeremy Pressman @djpressman.bsky.social · 9d

That sounds like some system I've heard about before.

Abu Aardvark’s Ghost @abuaardvark.bsky.social · 9d

“Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair's plan for running the Gaza Strip after the war proposes a multilayered, hierarchical structure in which senior international diplomats and businesspeople are on top and the Palestinians running things on the ground are at the bottom.”

Shibley Telhami @stelhami.bsky.social · 9d

A century removed from Western colonial powers casually drawing Middle Eastern borders with a ruler while disregarding the will of local populations, the region gets Tony Blair to dream up schemes of governing Gaza with little say by its people.
www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

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Jeremy Pressman @djpressman.bsky.social · 10d

“Despite the university requiring students to undergo the training, the Trump administration still cut $790m in research funding.”

Evan Bernick, a finite mode with a smol hooman and a lorg floof @evanbernick.bsky.social · 10d

ummm

Students objecting to the video say it equates criticism of Israel with antisemitism. At one point the narrator compares critics of Israel to former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke, and uses a controversial definition of
antisemitism.
The video also states that Israel was founded "on British land" and refers to the occupied West Bank as "Judea and Samaria", the biblical name controversially used for the
region by the Israeli government.

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MeidasTouch @meidastouch.com · 11d

This is a declaration of war against United States citizens

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 11d

Trump says he’s authorized Hegseth to use “Full Force” against Antifa in “War ravaged” Portland

At the request of Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, I am directing Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to provide all necessary Troops to protect War ravaged Portland, and any of our ICE Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists. I am also authorizing Full Force, if necessary. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

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David Corn @davidcorn.bsky.social · 11d

What a hellhole! What can we do to help? Do we need to organize an evacuation?

Senator Ron Wyden @wyden.senate.gov · 11d

Every single one of these clips was taken today in downtown Portland. Portland doesn’t want or need a federal takeover. If Trump insists on sending federal “resources” he can start with funding health care, bridges, affordable housing, and wildfire protection to name a few.

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Brian Klaas @brianklaas.bsky.social · 11d

So much has gone wrong in US press reporting on Trump because the White House reporters are people who have exclusively covered US politics.

They need people who have worked in Hungary, Turkey, etc. The relevant knowledge isn't Reagan factoids; it's the dynamics of competitive authoritarianism.

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Senator Ron Wyden @wyden.senate.gov · 11d

Taken just a few minutes ago outside the ICE facility in Portland that Trump claims is under siege. My message to Donald Trump is this: we don’t need you here. Stay the hell out of our city.

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Ray Delahanty | CityNerd @nerd4cities.bsky.social · 11d

Your war correspondent on the ground in battle-ravaged inner northeast Portland

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Brian Finucane @bcfinucane.bsky.social · 12d

Remember folks, when the ICC seeks to prosecute Israeli officials for atrocities in Gaza, that is “lawfare.”

When the U.S. President personally forces his handpicked US attorney to prosecute his political foe, that is “justice.”

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Cheryl Rofer @cherylrofer.bsky.social · 12d

Share, share, share!

James Comey @jamescomey.bsky.social · 12d

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David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 12d

in the face of all this, amazing people - lawyers, activists, citizens - are stepping up with lawsuits, protest, speaking out.

we will need more - especially an existential-level commitment from political and corporate leaders to see the moment for what it is and lead/act accordingly.

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David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 13d

so many levels to condemn this out-of-control abuse of power:

- the antisemitism of the anti-Soros agenda

- its roots in authoritarian repression of democracy support, esp by Putin and Orban

- trump's targeting of perceived political enemies by a weaponized DoJ.

and that's just a start.

Justice Dept. Official Pushes Prosecutors to Investigate George Soros’s Foundation

www.nytimes.com

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ProPublica @propublica.org · 16d

Children's hospital chaplain Ayman Soliman, whose detention sparked a community uproar and became a test of counterterrorism powers in immigration court, was released from an Ohio jail Friday as DHS abruptly withdrew its case against him.

“This is beyond my dreams,” he told ProPublica.

Ohio Chaplain Freed From Jail as DHS Drops Deportation Case

“This is beyond my dreams,” Ayman Soliman told ProPublica on his release from an Ohio jail. In a case marked by errors and inconsistencies, DHS had accused the children’s hospital chaplain of…

www.propublica.org

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Howard Eissenstat @heissenstat.bsky.social · 17d

I can't imagine any other country repeatedly killing US citizens with US weapons, with zero repercussions.

Abby Sewell @sewella.bsky.social · 17d

Israeli drone strike kills 5, including 3 children, in southern Lebanon

Lebanon's Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said the children and their father were U.S. citizens

Via @chehayebk.bsky.social

apnews.com/article/leba...

Israeli drone strike kills 5, including 3 children, in southern Lebanon

Lebanon’s Health Ministry says an Israeli drone strike in southern Lebanon has killed five people, including three children. The attack took place on Sunday.

apnews.com

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