Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Tom von Alten @fortboise.org · 9h

The lens of grifting makes it all make sense
pluralistic.net/2025/07/22/a...

Pluralistic: Conservatism considered as a movement of bitter rubes (22 Jul 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

pluralistic.net

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Tom von Alten @fortboise.org · 10h

"They shot and wounded a woman on Friday, hospitalized at least two people over the weekend, handcuffed a Chicago alderperson, and dispersed tear gas and pepper balls in confrontations with Chicagoans across the city all week"
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Tom von Alten @fortboise.org · 10h

"By the end of last week, other high-profile incidents involving federal agents had knocked the raid at 7500 S. South Shore from headlines. Agents were seen choking a Black man on the West Side and conducted a raid outside a homeless shelter in Bronzeville on Wednesday....
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Tom von Alten @fortboise.org · 10h

A NewsNation "camera crew was invited to join the raid"

Syracuse University’s data transparency project TRAC estimates "71.5 percent of the people currently in immigration detention have no criminal history."
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Tom von Alten @fortboise.org · 10h

Good god, how many things can you find wrong in this picture?

"Federal agents detained nearly every resident of the 130-unit building—including children and babies—placing them in zip ties and separating them by race into vans for more than two hours..."
southsideweekly.com/federal-agen...
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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 Tom von Alten

Wajahat Ali @wajali.bsky.social · 1d

The more America sees and hears from Stephen Miller, the worse it is for Trump and MAGA.

He's a total freak and loser, repulsive to the majority, and he's the shadow President and currently the most powerful, unelected person in the country.

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Tom von Alten @fortboise.org · 1d

Claim 86 describes half a dozen incidents demonstrating claim 85.

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

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storage.courtlistener.com

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Tom von Alten @fortboise.org · 1d

These assaults are not incidental or unintentional. They are undertaken by design to intimidate journalists on scene and to frustrate and suppress coverage of the federal officers’ actions toward protesters and immigration detainees.

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Tom von Alten @fortboise.org · 1d

From CHICAGO HEADLINE CLUB et al. v. KRISTI NOEM, PAM BONDI, DONALD J. TRUMP et al.

85. Federal immigration officers at the Broadview ICE facility have repeatedly and intentionally singled out persons whom they know to be members of the Press for violence, assault, and intimidation....

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Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · 2d

JUST IN: Chicago journalistsa re suing DHS and ICE over force used against reporters:

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

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@NewsJennifer (Jennifer Schulze) @newsjennifer.bsky.social · 1d

🚨THIS IS A BIG DEAL. Chicago journalists are suing the Trump administration for using excessive force against reporters & protestors in violation of the 1A.
The press here is doing astounding work documenting how ICE is out of control. The violence they face in doing so is obscene.

The protests at the Broadview ICE facility and the federal government’s violent
attempts to silence the protesters became a story of great interest to the local Chicago media and
was also covered in the national press. Much of the coverage described the federal officers’
abusive tactics. Defendants sought and are seeking to quash this coverage by attacking and
intimidating members of the Press on the ground there.
85. Federal immigration officers at the Broadview ICE facility have repeatedly and
intentionally singled out persons whom they know to be members of the Press for violence,
assault, and intimidation. These assaults are not incidental or unintentional. They are undertaken
by design to intimidate journalists on scene and to frustrate and suppress coverage of the federal
officers’ actions toward protesters and immigration detainees

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Tom von Alten @fortboise.org · 1d

Thus sayeth a self-professed Christian.

It's shocking what a facile liar he is. Everything about him his phony.

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Senator Amy Klobuchar @klobuchar.senate.gov · 1d

Today is the 17th day in a row that House Republicans have refused to come to work.

Instead of preventing health care costs from skyrocketing, they’re preventing the Epstein files from being released.

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Micah @rincewind.run · 1d

as always, the most accurate summation of modern politics ever created

comic from webcomicname.com, "different"

panel 1: pink blob creature: "I want things to be different"

panel 2: creature smashes everything

panel 3: creature stands in wreckage: "oh no"

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Tom von Alten @fortboise.org · 1d

He says such incredibly stupid things with utter confidence.

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Tom von Alten @fortboise.org · 1d

Karen Attiah responds to the Washington Post.

If I ever need legal representation, I'd hope for a team as good as the Democracy Defenders Fund. Their letter speaks volumes.
open.substack.com/pub/karenatt...

The Washington Post Accused Me of “Gross Misconduct.” Here's My Response.

This fight isn’t just about my job — it’s about who gets punished for telling the truth, and who gets protected for spreading hate and violence.

open.substack.com

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Tom von Alten @fortboise.org · 3d

... getting the carp knocked out of them ...

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Malcolm Nance, Leading Resister @malcolmnance.bsky.social · 3d

TERRORISM EXPERT HERE:

This statement is a clear example of what is known as “State Terrorism”: When the dictatorship will order all instruments of its state security & intelligence apparatus against its own citizens to terrorize the population.

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Tom von Alten @fortboise.org · 3d

"Legitimate state power" is doing a lot of work there.

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Luigi Palazzini 🇨🇦 @meextra.bsky.social · 3d

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Reposted by Tom von Alten

emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 3d

ICE has been paying private security for 24/7 guards to watch a guy with no record whose leg they fucked up so badly he has been in a hospital for over a month, and we wonder why people were handing Tom Homan bags of cash.

Via @kyledcheney.bsky.social

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

On August 27, 2025, Petitioner was arrested at the Carson Car Wash in Carson,
California by uniformed Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) officers and unidentified
plainclothes federal agents. See Pet. ¶¶ 16, 48; Santiago Decl. ¶ 3. During the arrest,
Petitioner sustained severe leg injuries. See Pet. ¶ 48; Santiago Decl. ¶ 5. He was
handcuffed and transported by CBP to the emergency room at Harbor-UCLA Medical
Center in Carson, California. Id.
At the hospital, Petitioner was admitted under a “blackout” procedure for patients
in law-enforcement custody and was registered under the pseudonym “Har Maine UNK
Thirteen.” Santiago Decl. ¶ 7. Federal agents remained at Petitioner’s bedside during
admission, transfer to non-public treatment areas, and throughout his stay, keeping him
handcuffed to his hospital bed. Id. ¶ 6.
On or about August 27, 2025, CBP transferred custody of Petitioner to ICE. See Pet.
¶ 48. He remains detained at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center under the supervision of ICE,
which has contracted with Spectrum Detention Services (“Spectrum”) to provide guards.
See Santiago Decl. ¶ 8; Pet. ¶ 48.
Since that date, two to four uniformed guards—either Spectrum employees or ICE
agents—have been continuously stationed in Petitioner’s hospital room, monitoring him at
all times, including while he sleeps, eats, uses the restroom, or receives medical care. See
Santiago Decl. ¶¶ 9–10.

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Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · 3d

All legal nonsense aside about the supposed state of armed conflict between the U.S. and Venezuelan gangs, what "I wish to emphasize is that there is a word for killings outside of armed conflict for which there is no domestic legal authority. That word is murder." [@benjaminwittes.lawfaremedia.org]

The Situation: Murder She Wrote

There's a word for what they're doing.

www.lawfaremedia.org

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Reposted by Tom von Alten

Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 3d

Miller’s apparent elevation to shadow president and his seeming intent to declare an end to the constitutional order would, in any other administration, be treated as a executive branch meltdown that was immensely embarrassing for the president and requiring Miller’s immediate removal

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Tom von Alten @fortboise.org · 3d

Trump ‘Determined’ we're at war with a bogeyman and so he can murder anyone he says is a bad guy.

It's not murder if he waves his hands?

SCOTUS ruled he can crime all he wants. Everyone in his administration, too?
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/u...

Trump ‘Determined’ the U.S. Is Now in a War With Drug Cartels, Congress Is Told

www.nytimes.com

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Tom von Alten @fortboise.org · 4d

"This level of presidential interference in prosecutorial decision-making contradicts everything our country has done in the post-Watergate era to protect against corruption in the justice system."

The incompetence is pretty epic, too.
www.brennancenter.org/our-work/ana...

Comey Indictment Shows Danger of Subservient Prosecutors

The political prosecution of a presidential enemy has left the government with a seemingly unwinnable case — and a justice system tainted by politics.

www.brennancenter.org

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