Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Meredith Shiner @meredithshiner.com · 20m

They’re just watching the game from a view worse than the rooftops

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Meredith Shiner @meredithshiner.com · 22m

“No protest in the free speech zone”

The People's Fabric @peoplesfabric.com · 24m

No protest from 6am to 9am in the Broadview free speech zone.

Just here with a handful of press waiting to see if we can catch the Texas National Guard arriving in Broadview tonight.

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Meredith Shiner @meredithshiner.com · 3h

Fun fact about Dick Durbin he fashions himself a champion of immigrant rights because he tried and failed to get DACA signed into law but earlier this year when immigration groups begged him to whip against the Laken Riley Act, he refused. And here we are! Which ICE and CBP more empowered than ever

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Meredith Shiner @meredithshiner.com · 3h

Dick Durbin is an absolute parody of himself. Your constituents are being tear gassed and shot in the streets!!!! Why are you so set on being my political nemesis my dude

Eric Michael Garcia @ericmgarcia.bsky.social · 4h

Durbin on whether Democrats can use reining in ICE in Chicago as a precondition to rein in the government says “can’t do that. It’s gotta be health care all the way.”

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Meredith Shiner @meredithshiner.com · 6h

@jzembik.bsky.social liked how I trolled Nats fans on Twitter and now we're married and have a kid.

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 20h

Has anything great happened in your life because of social media?

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Reposted by Meredith Shiner

Melissa Gira Grant @melissagiragrant.com · 11h

“…the president of the U.S. wants to turn that heavily funded, extramilitary military into a force to be unleashed against the American people, to do war crimes against us. Who authorized and appropriated that funding? Was it Congress? (Spoiler alert: It was.)”

Meredith Shiner @meredithshiner.com · 13h

Bridging my current life in Chicago and my past life in D.C., I argue today at @newrepublic.com that Democrats should ~never~ vote to fund this government. Make John Thune blow up Senate rules and Republicans wholly own the U.S. extra-military military doing war crimes against us, funded by us.

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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Meredith Shiner @meredithshiner.com · 11h

I would encourage you to read the piece beyond the headline! My argument is that Republicans should have to reopen the government all by themselves and that Democrats should better understand how to use “conflict” national media cares about, leveraging the shutdown to educate on what’s happening.

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Meredith Shiner @meredithshiner.com · 11h

Marc, that dude also had a "DUMP HERE 62" shirt in his hands that he changed into! He was so committed to manifesting this and then Cal Raleigh signed a bat for him after the game.

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Meredith Shiner @meredithshiner.com · 11h

faulty assumption! I am a woman on the Internet. With opinions!

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Reposted by Meredith Shiner

Jared Rizzi @jaredrizzi.bsky.social · 11h

The entire piece is excellent, and strikes the tone that is so crucial for this moment. But I'm most intrigued by Meredith's question near the middle: "Who is served by pretending we live in an America different from this one?"

Meredith Shiner @meredithshiner.com · 13h

Bridging my current life in Chicago and my past life in D.C., I argue today at @newrepublic.com that Democrats should ~never~ vote to fund this government. Make John Thune blow up Senate rules and Republicans wholly own the U.S. extra-military military doing war crimes against us, funded by us.

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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Meredith Shiner @meredithshiner.com · 11h

I guess good news/bad news I won't see everything people are saying about me

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Meredith Shiner @meredithshiner.com · 11h

also IDK if this is an issue for anyone else but I used to be able to put a link into the search field here and see who was posting about it and now that function seems to be gone?

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Reposted by Meredith Shiner

Josh Sternberg @joshsternberg.com · 12h

"Worse than how these legislative impasses have become commonplace in the rhythms and cadence of D.C., though, is how Democrats do not seem to know how to use them to build political capital, leverage, and public consensus."

Meredith Shiner @meredithshiner.com · 13h

Bridging my current life in Chicago and my past life in D.C., I argue today at @newrepublic.com that Democrats should ~never~ vote to fund this government. Make John Thune blow up Senate rules and Republicans wholly own the U.S. extra-military military doing war crimes against us, funded by us.

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 Meredith Shiner

Jonathan Cohn @jonathancohn.bsky.social · 12h

"When you utter words aloud but then act in opposition to the intent of those words, you are not, in fact, running or standing on anything. "

Meredith Shiner @meredithshiner.com · 13h

“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 Meredith Shiner

unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 12h

"I cannot begin to tell you how difficult and unnerving it is to have been in Chicago these past few weeks; to exist indefinitely in the contradictory space between knowing and living."

Meredith Shiner @meredithshiner.com · 13h

Bridging my current life in Chicago and my past life in D.C., I argue today at @newrepublic.com that Democrats should ~never~ vote to fund this government. Make John Thune blow up Senate rules and Republicans wholly own the U.S. extra-military military doing war crimes against us, funded by us.

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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Meredith Shiner @meredithshiner.com · 12h

It is probably my No. 2 purpose on earth, behind being a mom

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Reposted by Meredith Shiner

🎃 public HELLth guy 🎃 @publichealthguy1.bsky.social · 12h

i appreciate @meredithshiner.com’s wisdom, as well as her refusal to let the coons-valentine’s day story fade from public memory

It is certainly self-evident that Democrats do not care to "do democracy," but what I would argue is that speeches about democracy do not carry the weight of collective action in support of democracy. In 2024, President Joe Biden told us repeatedly that "democracy was on the line," and yet three years earlier, Senate Democrats prematurely ended the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump because top Biden ally.
Chris Coons of Delaware wanted to go home for Valentine's Day. Congressional Democrats, despite their supposed 2024 warnings that democracy was on the brink, almost all attended Donald Trump's inauguration in 2025 as if it were normal and acceptable, and Biden himself welcomed the Trumps back into the White House with open arms.

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Meredith Shiner @meredithshiner.com · 12h

thank you ❤️

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Reposted by Meredith Shiner

Molly Jong-Fast @mollyjongfast.bsky.social · 12h

I love @meredithshiner.com she’s so smart

Meredith Shiner @meredithshiner.com · 13h

“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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Meredith Shiner @meredithshiner.com · 13h

We are in Week 2 of a government shutdown and Week Too Many of randomized terror in our neighborhoods, and I am fucking begging Democrats to connect the dots and take a little agency in shaping the national narrative on living in fascism.

Meredith Shiner @meredithshiner.com · 13h

Bridging my current life in Chicago and my past life in D.C., I argue today at @newrepublic.com that Democrats should ~never~ vote to fund this government. Make John Thune blow up Senate rules and Republicans wholly own the U.S. extra-military military doing war crimes against us, funded by us.

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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Meredith Shiner @meredithshiner.com · 13h

“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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Meredith Shiner @meredithshiner.com · 13h

good morning to the intern doing @schumer.senate.gov’s clips

Every time Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York-the Democrat with the most power in a shutdown because his withholding of seven senators toward a procedural vote keeps Republicans from proceeding-says that Democrats are looking to open the government through a negotiation around and deal on Affordable Care Act subsidies, he is acquiescing to the idea that a government in which Border Patrol agents paid with our tax dollars can shoot real bullets at protesters in Chicago after screaming "Do something, bitch!" can and should be deemed legitimate.
The truth is that Democrats can pay a million consultants to come up with a million different talking points on health care subsidies. They can keep holding press conferences in the Senate studio like every other press conference before it, talking to the same reporters, pretending like we live in a redeemable timeline where if they just keep on acting like it's 2007, we might fall through a time portal that makes it so. But we live here in a country with a co-opted executive branch led by racist, xenophobic idiots who do not believe in law, empowered by a slavishly devoted Supreme Court that has decided shoveling unlimited power to said executive is more important than the law it disregards, and where the president thinks he can send national guardsmen from red states to blue states just because people of color live here and Fox News hosts hate that.

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Meredith Shiner @meredithshiner.com · 13h

Bridging my current life in Chicago and my past life in D.C., I argue today at @newrepublic.com that Democrats should ~never~ vote to fund this government. Make John Thune blow up Senate rules and Republicans wholly own the U.S. extra-military military doing war crimes against us, funded by us.

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 Meredith Shiner

Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 1d

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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Meredith Shiner @meredithshiner.com · 22h

THIS TEAM

👻🦇Sarah🧛🏻🎃 @13thgravegypt.bsky.social · 22h

He deserves this

The fan with the dump 61/62 here shirt got to meet Cal after the game and get a bat and ball autographed by Cal.

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