Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Laura Hercher @laurahercher.bsky.social · 22h

I like this guy how about you?

Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 23h

I will not back down.

Trump is now calling for the arrest of elected representatives checking his power.

What else is left on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?

Donald Trump Truth Social Post: Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers! Governor Pritzker also.

Reposted by Laura Hercher

Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 1d

Six of the nine Nobel Prize winners this year work in the U.S.
Three of the six were born outside the U.S., which is the pattern most years. No country has benefited more from welcoming immigrants from around the world.
www.nobelprize.org

The official website of the Nobel Prize - NobelPrize.org

The Nobel Prize rewards science, humanism and peace efforts. This is one of the central concepts in the will of Alfred Nobel, and it also permeates the outreach activities that have been developed for...

www.nobelprize.org

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Reposted by Laura Hercher

George Conway 👊🇺🇸🔥 @gtconway.bsky.social · 1d

THESE PAGAN LIBTARD WAR DANCES CAN ONLY PRESAGE CALAMITY!!

MEIN LEADER PRÄSIDENT TRUMP, HERR REICHSCOUCHVUCKER VON VANCE, HERR VERRÜCKTPSYCHO STEPHANMÜLLER, DER VOLK DEMAND YOU DEPLOY DIE PANZERBRIGADEN NOW!!!

Vielen Damk für your attention to this matter

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Laura Hercher @laurahercher.bsky.social · 23h

Says this like it’s a bad thing.

The Verge @theverge.com · May 26

Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry

Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.

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Reposted by Laura Hercher

McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · 23h

"No doubt Chuck Schumer and the head of Antifa (whose name escapes me at the moment) were in cahoots to shut down the government so that they can turn America’s national parks into training grounds for leftist guerrillas."

We Are Not Fascists, and If You Call Us Fascists, We Will Arrest You

President Trump had another successful week of what is already the greatest presidency of all time, and yet, the woke leftist mob continues to deli...

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Laura Hercher @laurahercher.bsky.social · 23h

Makes you wish there was a hell.

Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan.bsky.social · 23h

“Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar”

Never forget or forgive that Trump, Rubio, & Musk *chose* to inflict this monumental level of death and suffering on the poorest & most vulnerable people.

Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said “no one has died" because of his government’s decision to gut its foreign aid program.

apnews.com

Laura Hercher @laurahercher.bsky.social · 1d

It's the guns

Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 2d

It's so incredible how low homicide rates are in Europe. The UK, with a population of 70 million people, had fewer than 600 murders in 2023.
www.connexionfrance.com/news/double-...

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Laura Hercher @laurahercher.bsky.social · 3d

Irony is dead, part one million.

Scary Werewolf Bar Kochba @dickius.bsky.social · 3d

Wow, it must be terrible being told that you can’t use the bathroom.

'Very difficult situation': Kristi Noem whines locals not letting ICE agents use restrooms

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem complained that her agents were not being permitted to use restrooms in Chicago because of opposition from residents.During a Sunday interview on ...

www.rawstory.com

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Reposted by Laura Hercher

Mississippi Free Press @mississippifreepress.org · 3d

A baby in Mississippi has died of whooping cough for the first time since 2012.

The infant was less than two months old and was not old enough to receive the pertussis vaccine.

Mississippi Baby Dies of Whooping Cough Amid Rising Cases

A baby in Mississippi has died of whooping cough for the first time since 2012. The baby was less than two months old—too young for vaccination.

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Reposted by Laura Hercher

Mallory Harris, PhD @malar0ne.bsky.social · 3d

IMO this hasn't gotten enough attention: a recent memo at NIH announces that peer review will be devalued in determining which grants get funded, granting more power to political appointees to make decisions based on the admin's whims over scientific merit

kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

Changes at NIH Give Political Appointees Greater Power To Fund or Block Research - KFF Health News

The National Institutes of Health’s long-held standard of peer review for grantmaking has been subverted by President Donald Trump and NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, who gave unprecedented power to po...

kffhealthnews.org

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Laura Hercher @laurahercher.bsky.social · 3d

Support ProPublica

ProPublica @propublica.org · 3d

ProPublica and @theassemblync.bsky.social found that in some North Carolina counties, homeowners with the highest incomes received two to three times as much FEMA housing assistance as those with lower incomes after Hurricane Helene.

By @jenniferberryhawes.bsky.social and Ren Larson

Arduous and Unequal: The Fight to Get FEMA Housing Assistance After Helene

An analysis by ProPublica and The Assembly of the more rural counties in North Carolina hardest hit by Helene shows that the households that got the most aid tended to have the highest incomes.

www.propublica.org

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Laura Hercher @laurahercher.bsky.social · 5d

Psst: How bad are the September jobs reports? Trump shut down the goverment so you wouldn't see them.

Pass it on.

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Laura Hercher @laurahercher.bsky.social · 5d

As I was saying, affirmative action for incompetent ideologues.

Ida Bae Wells @nhannahjones.bsky.social · 6d

In case it wasn’t clear, the anti-DEI crusade has never been about merit. Zero news experience. Never been a reporter. Elevated to Editor in Chief of CBS News, one of the most storied news institutions in the nation. www.mediaite.com/media/news/p...

Paramount Officially Acquiring The Free Press and Making Bari Weiss CBS News Editor in Chief: Report

Paramount Skydance will be officially acquiring The Free Press and hiring its founder Bari Weiss as editor in chief of its CBS News division, with the deal to be announced this coming Monday, accordin...

www.mediaite.com

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Laura Hercher @laurahercher.bsky.social · 5d

Every time politicians demand equal representation for conservative academics, remember that they are requesting affirmative action for incompetent ideologues.

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 6d

Yes, New College is incredibly inefficient but it also dropped 60(!) spots on the US News & World Report rankings. Not easy!
Everytime Chris Rufo is introduced as an impt voice in higher ed, remember that the one time he had a hand in running an institution has been a disaster.
Competence matters.

Will Bunch @willbunch.bsky.social · 8d

You'll be shocked to learn New College of Florida is on the brink of implosion just a couple of years after DeSantis engineered an extreme right-wing takeover

Fun fact: NCF's new overlords spend $134K per student (!!...the average at other FL publics is $10K) www.insidehighered.com/news/governa...

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Reposted by Laura Hercher

Jay 🦋 @jay.bsky.team · 7d

“It actually doesn’t take much to be considered a difficult woman. That’s why there are so many of us.”
― Jane Goodall

💙 RIP to a real one. My childhood hero

Jane Goodall with monarch butterfly scarf

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Laura Hercher @laurahercher.bsky.social · 8d

Slipping a little farther down the slope

Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 8d

New: ICE has bought a tool that tracks the locations of hundreds of millions of phones globally, updates every single day. Usually harvested from apps and advertising

www.404media.co/ice-to-buy-t...

ICE to Buy Tool that Tracks Locations of Hundreds of Millions of Phones Every Day

Documents show that ICE has gone back on its decision to not use location data remotely harvested from peoples' phones. The database is updated every day with billions of pieces of location data.

www.404media.co

Reposted by Laura Hercher

Danielle Froom 🏳️‍🌈 @danifroom.bsky.social · 9d

I don't think we'll ever get another sentence which sums up everything the New York Times embodies quite like "Some legal experts have called it a crime to summarily kill civilians".

Matt Cameron @mattcameron.bsky.social · 9d

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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Laura Hercher @laurahercher.bsky.social · 9d

I wish I believed in hell.

Laura Hercher @laurahercher.bsky.social · 10d

As soldiers prepare to invade Portland to stamp out protest, one of your friendly Silicon Valley overlords fantasizes about imposing his ideal of "best behavior" which I assume means... whatever he wants it to mean.

Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 11d

Larry Ellison envisions a surveillance state in which techbros rule. '“Citizens will be on their best behavior, because we’re constantly recording and reporting everything that is going on,” Ellison said in an hour-long Q&A during Oracle’s Financial Analyst Meeting last week.'

Larry Ellison predicts rise of the modern surveillance state where ‘citizens will be on their best behavior’ | Fortune

Oracle's Larry Ellison believes citizens and police alike will be under constant surveillance of each other.

fortune.com

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Laura Hercher @laurahercher.bsky.social · 10d

Ah, that old non-subjective "best behavior" standard.

Reposted by Laura Hercher

Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · 10d

About to be the family that owns TikTok.

Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 11d

Larry Ellison envisions a surveillance state in which techbros rule. '“Citizens will be on their best behavior, because we’re constantly recording and reporting everything that is going on,” Ellison said in an hour-long Q&A during Oracle’s Financial Analyst Meeting last week.'

Larry Ellison predicts rise of the modern surveillance state where ‘citizens will be on their best behavior’ | Fortune

Oracle's Larry Ellison believes citizens and police alike will be under constant surveillance of each other.

fortune.com

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Laura Hercher @laurahercher.bsky.social · 10d

Brilliant

Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 11d

This rules - @raskin.house.gov straight up called out Roberts to his face.

democrats-judiciary.house.gov/media-center...

Ranking Member Jamie Raskin
Prepared Remarks for the Judicial Conference
September 16, 2025
Thank you, Chief Justice Roberts, for the invitation.
Forgive my directness here but the times are serious, as you know, our time is short. I have just five minutes and don't want to trespass on Senator Cruz's time.
Sometimes these days I feel as if all the foundational principles are being trampled and lost.
Often, I hear my colleagues in the House, and these are fellow Democrats, get up to protest some Executive usurpation of legislative power and they begin their lament with the plaintive cry, "We are a coequal branch of government..."
And I always feel they have lost the argument right there just by repeating that fifth-grade dogma.
First of all, co-equal is not even a word. It's an embarrassing redundancy like "very unique" or
"irregardless.
"

But there's a reason all legislative power is vested in the Congress and there's a reason it's in Article I.
The Founders had a revolution against monarchy and its constant assaults on liberty. In America, the Framers determined, only the representatives of the people would have power to declare wars, pass budgets, impose taxes and tariffs, and so on. Article lis pages and pages of all the powers vested in Congress. Then you get to Article Il, which is tiny.
The key paragraph says a president shall be removed from office upon impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery and other high crimes and misdemeanors. If we are co-equal, why do we have the power to impeach, try, convict, remove and permanently disqualify the president and he doesn't have the power to impeach, try, convict, remove and disqualify us?
The core job of the president is plain: "To Take care that the laws are faithfully executed."
That's it. Not abused, not thwarted, not impounded, not redirected, but faithfully executed.
A lot of the cases entering the federal courts are variations on this theme.

Here's the remarkable thing: Americans have brought over 300 cases in federal district courts against the Administration so far for usurping legislative powers, defying federal laws, or violating the rights of the people. This summer, researchers found that plaintiffs were winning an astonishing 77% of the cases in the district courts. Moreover, they found that President Trump was losing about equally before Republican-appointed judges (72%) and Democratic-appointed judges (80%).
The numbers in the federal circuit courts of appeal are similar, with plaintiffs against the Administration winning overwhelmingly and again without a sharp partisan valence to the appeals courts' voting. A good example is the birthright citizenship case where four district court judges, two appointed by Republican presidents and two appointed by Democratic presidents, all struck down the President's purported negation of birthright citizenship. Then, on appeal, three circuit courts again all ruled against the Administration.
But everything is flipped when the cases come to the Supreme Court.

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Reposted by Laura Hercher

Your Internet Friend Tom Tomorrow @tomtomorrow.bsky.social · 11d

My dearest Martha, I send you all my love from this war-torn ravaged place, where our hardships surpass comprehension. Yesterday, a barista gave me a whole milk latte when I specifically ordered skim. Later, a young woman with strangely colored hair glanced at me disapprovingly.

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Reposted by Laura Hercher

Ari Berman @ariberman.bsky.social · 11d

Trump DOJ:

-overruling career prosecutors to indict Trump's political opponents

-suing states to get sensitive voter data

-urging SCOTUS to gut Voting Rights Act

-helping GOP states gerrymander mid-decade

A 5 alarm fire on every front www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

The Justice Department is ramping up Trump’s election-rigging efforts

DOJ officials have sued six more states to demand sensitive voter data.

www.motherjones.com

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Laura Hercher @laurahercher.bsky.social · 13d

Wisconsin, Michigan, THE Ohio State, Indiana, Alabama, Georgia, UT, Iowa, ROAR. You have the capital to take on your political leaders. Don’t let your prestigious institutions be ruined. LFG.