Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by John Sipher

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 2h

Bray is a historian at Rutgers who received death threats after landing on Turning Points USA's Professor Watchlist. As a result, he announced he was moving to Europe. And then this happened.

This kind of harassment and abuse of scholars is Charlie Kirk's legacy and it's only getting worse.

Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 3h

“Someone” cancelled my family’s flight out of the country at the last second.

We got our boarding passes. We checked our bags. Went through security. Then at our gate our reservation ‘disappeared.’

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Quinta Jurecic @qjurecic.bsky.social · 3h

incredibly, bleakly funny that trump is going after christopher wray, who spent his entire tenure at the fbi with his head down desperately trying to avoid trump's attention and did nothing to protect the bureau from trump's attacks www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Other prosecutors are investigating former CIA director John Brennan, another prominent Trump critic, and former FBI director Christopher Wray, who was originally appointed by Trump but enraged conservatives who came to believe he had wielded the bureau’s powers against them. Former officials have received subpoenas in recent days in the Wray inquiry, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter.

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John Sipher @johnsipher.bsky.social · 4m

www.thecipherbrief.com/column_artic...

What Analysts Missed Before Russia’s Invasion - and What They're Still Missing

Whose analysis do we trust? John Sipher says, be careful what to believe after failed predictions at the start of the Ukraine war.

www.thecipherbrief.com

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John Sipher @johnsipher.bsky.social · 6m

But, but, but…all the think tank talking heads tell us Russia’s victory is inevitable. Could they be wrong (again)?

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Zach Dorfman @zachsdorfman.bsky.social · 1h

Holding aside everything—everything—else, the President conducting very sensitive conversations with his Attorney General on an unencrypted social media platform would have been a major scandal any time before 2016. Is he DMing the CIA Director on there? The Secretary of Defense? We don’t know.

Brad Heath @bradheath.bsky.social · 2h

WSJ: President Trump believed his Truth Social post demanding prosecutions of James Comey and other political foes was a private message to his attorney general, and "and was surprised to learn it was public."

www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

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John Sipher @johnsipher.bsky.social · 25m

But all the same analysts that were wrong at the beginning of the war are still telling us Russian victory is inevitable because it’s “big”. I guess the US losses in Vietnam and Afghanistan didn’t register.

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John Sipher @johnsipher.bsky.social · 27m

Plus all the savings from “Doge” and firings. I’ll bet we saved nothing. Only made ourselves weaker and will pay more.

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John Sipher @johnsipher.bsky.social · 30m

Agree

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Joe Walsh @walshfreedom.bsky.social · 55m

Christian Nationalism Is The Antithesis Of Jesus’s Teachings.” A Conversation: I sat down with April Ajoy, someone who grew up in the Christian nationalism movement, and is now doing everything she can to help people understand the movement, understand how it goes against everything Jesus taught,…

Christian Nationalism Is The Antithesis Of Jesus’s Teachings.” A Conversation

I sat down with April Ajoy, someone who grew up in the Christian nationalism movement, and is now doing everything she can to help people understand the movement, understand how it goes against everything Jesus taught, and understand the real threat it is to America. Fascinating conversation.

www.youtube.com

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George Conway 👊🇺🇸🔥 @gtconway.bsky.social · 14h

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John Sipher @johnsipher.bsky.social · 34m

There are so many serious things to worry about, fight for and write about. We shouldn’t attack people if they don’t immediately grab onto your worry. We each need to push on as many things as we can but we can’t satisfy everyone.

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John Lipponen 🇫🇮 🇦🇹 @lippoenen.bsky.social · 49m

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Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 46m

Grandpa's been watching cable news and gotten confused again

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 7h

Trump on Portland: "It's like the movies you see for the kids, I guess not only the kids, adults also, where you have these bombed out cities and these bombed out people. It's like, worse than that."

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Reposted by John Sipher

The Steady State @steadystatevets.bsky.social · 16h

We at The Steady State have studied the indicators of authoritarianism for decades — usually dry words in intelligence reports. But sometimes, a single photograph says it all.

Authoritarianism doesn’t arrive all at once. It creeps in under cover of “order,” cloaked in uniforms, justified by fear.

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John Sipher @johnsipher.bsky.social · 42m

Really? Hundred of thousands dead, and they are recruiting Cubans and Africans to fight? Nobody is getting inside to get real info in Russia. These are just the same analysts that can’t admit the country they study is a mess.

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The Onion @theonion.com · 11h

Area Man Has Far Greater Knowledge Of Marvel Universe Than Own Family Tree https://theonion.com/area-man-has-far-greater-knowledge-of-marvel-universe-t-1819571080/

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John Sipher @johnsipher.bsky.social · 7h

Huh?

John Sipher @johnsipher.bsky.social · 7h

Little prick

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 10h

NN: Dems say you won't swear in Grijalva bc you don't want her vote on Epstein

JOHNSON: No. It's scheduling

NN: But there have been Rs sworn in during pro forma sessions

MJ: Only reason was bc they flew in their family

NN: So if she flies in her family you'd do it?

MJ: Again, it's a distraction

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Max Boot @maxboot.bsky.social · 8h

The administration is turning the “war on drugs” from a metaphor into an actual war. Shouldn’t such a momentous decision require the consent of Congress? If Trump wants a Gulf of Venezuela resolution, he should say so. If he doesn’t, he should stop the kinetic strikes. wapo.st/4o9ZEVW

Opinion | Trump is turning the ‘war on drugs’ from metaphor into an actual war

Beyond the question of whether blowing up boats off Venezuela is legal, what’s the military objective?

wapo.st

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Anton Gerashchenko @antongerashchenko.bsky.social · 8h

Russian propagandist Solovyev:
"Putin gave us back our Motherland."

In reality,under Putin's regime:
◾️Russia started the bloodiest war on the European continent since WWII;
◾️Russia has been kicked out of G8;
◾️Putin is under a search warrant from the ICC for war crimes;

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 9h

Pritzker: "He wants to militarize major cities because he wants us to get used to the idea of troops on the streets. I believe he's gonna post people outside of polling places and if he needs to in order to control those elections, he'll assume control of the ballot boxes & count the votes himself"

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Bobby Kogan @bbkogan.bsky.social · 8h

Elon Musk said he was going to cut spending by $2 trillion dollars, but instead spending is higher this year than we thought it would be before Trump took office. Truly incredible stuff.

Bobby Kogan @bbkogan.bsky.social · 8h

CBO fy2025 projections for deficit/spending/etc are out

Some issues make simple comparisons apples-to-oranges, so I'll do apples-to-apples & explain in the thread

Relative to pre-Trump projections:
-Primary deficits ⬆️ $34 bn
-program spending ⬆️ $97 bn
-revenues ⬆️ $63 bn
www.cbo.gov/publication/...

2025 (January estimate, adjusted to fix issues) 2025 CBO estimate (remove student loan one-time revaluation) 2025 (adjusted for student loans) vs. 2025 projection (adjusted to fix issues)
Spending 7061 7166 105
Program spending 6108 6205 97
Interest 953 961 9
Revenue 5163 5226 63
Primary deficit 945 979 34
Total deficit 1898 1940 42

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John Sipher @johnsipher.bsky.social · 8h

Maybe air controllers too. But I’m okay if Congress loses its pay.

Rep. Ted Lieu @reptedlieu.bsky.social · 8h

It is insane to not pay our troops.

Democrats are here. Republicans need to come back from their vacation, work with us, and we need to pay our troops.

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John Sipher @johnsipher.bsky.social · 11h

Consistently

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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 11h

🏆 How does a comedy show have the best news research team? @thedailyshow.com

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