Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

John Robinson @jrobin.bsky.social · 49m

These two should get one of the genius grants announced today.

Courtney Vaughn @courtneyvaughn.bsky.social · 14h

Streets are still closed off in front of the Portland ICE facility at 8:30pm. Protesters have gathered on a side street. Dance party in progress.

John Robinson @jrobin.bsky.social · 56m

Same

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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 1h

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

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John Robinson @jrobin.bsky.social · 2h

Hey, Ted. You know your favorite president suggested yesterday he isn’t going to pay these workers. #TrumpShutdown

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John Robinson @jrobin.bsky.social · 2h

This guy...
👉Doesn't know whether the governor should be in prison.
👉Doesn't know if federal workers should get back pay.
👉Didn't know who Bad Bunny is.
👉Lied about when he'd swear in a new member.

The leader of the House

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 3h

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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John Robinson @jrobin.bsky.social · 3h

Oh, good ! Let’s all join and ask him questions!

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John Robinson @jrobin.bsky.social · 3h

👇!👇!👇!👇!!!!

John Robinson @jrobin.bsky.social · 3h

Remember the good old days when a player just got too many parking tickets with too many cars

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David S. Levine @davidslevine.bsky.social · 7h

So many reasons why people don’t vote; apathy being the main one IMO. But I’ll add that trying to find *any* information about the candidates (other than the top two mayoral) was basically impossible. It was the candidate websites and not much else. Local news is in crisis, and yet we need more.

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Meredith Shiner @meredithshiner.com · 5h

“Let Republicans have the literal blood of American citizens on their hands—and make that the central issue of the shutdown. Otherwise, enjoy having your health care subsidy debate in the gulags these people would happily send us all to. I hear that poll-tests great.”

The Case for the Forever Shutdown

Senate Democrats actually allowing the GOP to stop funding the government is only the first step. Now they have to make the case that Trump’s government is illegitimate.

newrepublic.com

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Reposted by John Robinson

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 5h

It's clear by now that the Democrats won't press this case as aggressively as it needs to be pressed, and the media won't do that unless they have Democrats' quotes to use as a springboard either.

They won't do this work, so it's even more important that we circulate these stories ourselves.

David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 5h

I really believe that huge majorities of Americans don’t want masked soldiers shooting priests in the street. They don’t want naked children ripped out out of their apartments in the middle of the night and handcuffed. We win by making sure these stories get told.

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 5h

The same people who insisted devout Catholic Joe Biden was leading a “war on Christianity” are now cheering Trump on as his armed goons assault clergymen.

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John Robinson @jrobin.bsky.social · 6h

The Carolina Way has lost its way. Again. www.nytimes.com/athletic/669...

UNC CB coach suspended in relation to extra benefits allegations: Source

Hawkins is a first-year Tar Heels assistant and former recruiting analyst and secondary coach at Washington.

www.nytimes.com

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John Robinson @jrobin.bsky.social · 6h

“the average percentage of time that all faculty spend on teaching is 28 percent.”

As an adjunct, i spent — let me see, oh yeah — 100 PERCENT of my time on teaching.

www.dailytarheel.com/article/univ...

Workload report shows breakdown of time UNC faculty spend teaching, researching

It is not exactly clear what UNC plans to use the faculty workload report for, but some professors are confused about how the data was calculated.

www.dailytarheel.com

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John Robinson @jrobin.bsky.social · 8h

Yesterday voters in my N.C. county turned out to choose city and town council members.

No, that’s not exactly right. 10% - 1 in 10 eligible voters - turned out for the primary.

This is not a properly functioning democracy.

a cartoon dog is sitting at a table with a cup of coffee in front of a fire with the words it 's fine above him

ALT: a cartoon dog is sitting at a table with a cup of coffee in front of a fire with the words it 's fine above him

media.tenor.com

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John Robinson @jrobin.bsky.social · 8h

“I think the death of journalism is around the corner within 6 months to a year. The internet is getting worse by the day, & there are absolutely no guardrails put in place, even as news organisations are being forced to pay for that, & our content is exploited.” www.theguardian.com/books/2025/o...

How to live a good life in difficult times: Yuval Noah Harari, Rory Stewart and Maria Ressa in conversation

From superintelligent AI to the climate and democracy, three leading thinkers discuss how to navigate the future

www.theguardian.com

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John Robinson @jrobin.bsky.social · 8h

“What remains to be seen is whether the Senate will do anything about it”

Not this year but she’d better hope Trump gives her a pre-exemptive pardon before he’s out.

Joyce White Vance @joycewhitevance.bsky.social · 15h

Congress continues to fail at providing the checks & balances the Constitution intends on the executive branch, but Senate Democrats are working hard to try and get it there. open.substack.com/pub/joycevan...

Oversight

Attorney General Pam Bondi showed up for an oversight hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee today, and she brought her best Scarlett O’Hara demeanor along with her.

open.substack.com

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John Robinson @jrobin.bsky.social · 17h

No, the only good news is that they won’t play in front of New York fans next year.

John Robinson @jrobin.bsky.social · 17h

Better headline: Speaker Johnson lied when he said he’d swear in new House Democrat ‘as soon as she wants.’ She wants now; he say no.

CNN @cnn.com · 17h

Speaker Mike Johnson is not planning to allow Democrats’ newest congresswoman-elect to be sworn-in until her party agrees to end the government shutdown, despite telling CNN that he would swear her in “as soon as she wants.”

Speaker Johnson said he’d swear in new House Democrat ‘as soon as she wants.’ Now Republicans are back tracking | CNN Politics

Speaker Mike Johnson is not planning to allow Democrats’ newest congresswoman-elect to be sworn-in until her party agrees to end the government shutdown, despite telling CNN earlier Tuesday that he wo...

www.cnn.com

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John Robinson @jrobin.bsky.social · 17h

Hahahaha.

Democracy Action Network @democracyactionnet.bsky.social · 17h

Trump Republicans aren’t too happy about the new Zach Bryan song coming for the airwaves.The Grammy award-winning country music singer released a snippet of an unreleased track, “Bad News”, on his ...

MAGA Loses Its Collective Mind Over New Country Song Bashing ICE

Zach Bryan has some “bad news” for Republicans.

newrepublic.com

John Robinson @jrobin.bsky.social · 17h

Trump is forcing proud farmers to rely government assistance.

Last I heard, Republicans don’t love people who take federal handouts.

Trump’s America.

Rex Huppke @rexhuppke.bsky.social · 18h

It may well wind up being the farmers that rise up against Trump before anyone else does.

Acyn @acyn.bsky.social · 21h

Soybean Farmer: So now I've got a tariff war that's killing my market. I don't have any money from grain we're sending to other countries for USAID. I mean, I've got a compound problem. I don't know how you plan for next year because we don't know where we're at.

Reposted by John Robinson

Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 18h

I feel like this photo of masked, armed men pepper spraying a pastor protecting his community is going to be a defining picture of this moment in America for a long, long time.