Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by michaela t

The Herd House

@theherdhouse.bsky.social

Welly Wisdom - wear your headgear like Santa is watching.

Wellington is a Yorkie with floppy ears and his tongue sticking out. He’s wearing a candy cane headband.

December 22, 2025 at 7:31 PM

Reposted by michaela t

Phil Lewis

@phillewis.bsky.social

I just uploaded @jasonparis.bsky.social 's recording of the segment CBS News pulled from "60 Minutes" to YouTube:

WATCH: Segment CBS News Pulled From "60 Minutes"

YouTube video by Phil Lewis

www.youtube.com

December 22, 2025 at 10:45 PM

Reposted by michaela t

Andrew Callahan

@andrewcallahan.bsky.social

On Drake Maye making a leap last night in Baltimore and carrying the #Patriots with him: www.bostonherald.com/2025/12/22/c...

December 22, 2025 at 3:25 PM

Reposted by michaela t

cait (and adonis)

@cait.bsky.social

sir put that away!!

December 22, 2025 at 2:28 AM

Reposted by michaela t

Adam Serwer

@adamserwer.bsky.social

The right, along the Roberts Court, is trying to nullify the Reconstruction amendments guaranteeing equality under the law, in order to restore the Antebellum Constitution, which envisions “liberty” as an eternal aristocracy of race and class (gift link) www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

When the 18th-century writer Samuel Johnson asked why “we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes,” he was identifying no mere contradiction, but liberty as it was imagined by men who owned other human beings as property. Slaveholders such as John Calhoun saw slavery as inseparable from their own freedom, and they worried that the false doctrine of abolitionism would eliminate that freedom away. “Already it has taken possession of the pulpit, of the schools, and, to a considerable extent, of the press; those great instruments by which the mind of the rising generation will be formed,” Calhoun said. (It seems the “woke mind virus” was telling lies about the great and benevolent institution of American slavery as far back as two centuries ago.)

Defending slavery, however, required invasive uses of power, such as banning antislavery literature and returning escaped Black people to bondage. Many white Americans in the 19th century began to understand that the “Slave Power” curtailed their freedoms as well. And this is what many people forget: Systems of domination rarely spread their blessings widely. The Redemption-era revocation of Black freedoms didn’t result in prosperity for white people writ large, but a Gilded Age in which the upper classes gained unfathomable wealth and economic crises left millions destitute. The nation may have held on to white supremacy, but it also got low wages, a threadbare welfare state, and a society dominated by the rich. Everyone else was too divided by race and class to challenge them.

December 22, 2025 at 1:11 PM

Reposted by michaela t

Adam Serwer

@adamserwer.bsky.social

Took my girls to the zoo and the hippos were making out

One hippo nibbling the cheek of the other

December 22, 2025 at 2:24 PM

Reposted by michaela t

Marisa Kabas

@marisakabas.bsky.social

support independent media. idk what else to say right now.

December 22, 2025 at 3:24 AM

Reposted by michaela t

Blue Heron Farm

@blueheronfarm.bsky.social

Seems like a pretty big caveat at the bottom, which will undoubtedly be ignored by their audience.

ACA subsidy fraud exposed

Federal officials warn of significant fraud within Affordable Care Act subsidies.

The Government Accountability Office found fake accounts approved at a 100% rate, with billions in unreconciled payments. Amid expiring subsidies on Tuesday, Republican lawmakers are pushing for reforms, citing fraud, while criticizing Democrat proposals for extension.

Generated with Al, which can make mistakes

December 21, 2025 at 6:17 PM

Reposted by michaela t

Adam Serwer

@adamserwer.bsky.social

I wrote about the conservative quest to restore the "true" Constitution, the Antebellum Constitution, shorn of the egalitarian nonsense in the Reconstruction Amendments, a document that replaces equality with a society of dominators and the dominated. www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

The Constitution of the Roberts Court is not color-blind. It is a Constitution that permits discrimination on the basis of race, but forbids alleviating discrimination on the basis of race. And over the next year, the Court will face more cases that could further erode both the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, pushing America back toward what some on the right believe is the true, Antebellum Constitution.

December 21, 2025 at 2:59 PM

Reposted by michaela t

cait (and adonis)

@cait.bsky.social

today is already the 10 month anniversary of Adonis being an inside boy with us 🥺

December 20, 2025 at 3:56 PM

Reposted by michaela t

cait (and adonis)

@cait.bsky.social

love when he comes out of bed looking like this

December 20, 2025 at 3:45 PM

Reposted by michaela t

Evan Greer

@evangreer.bsky.social

NEW: They kept saying they were gonna do it and now they've done it

A group of clowns (Senators) have introduced a bill to FULLY REPEAL Section 230.

No reform, no replacement, just utter destruction of all online free speech.

We can't let this happen. Share & take action

www.badinternetbills.com

Bad Internet Bills

All of the bad internet bills. One website.

www.badinternetbills.com

December 18, 2025 at 7:37 PM

Reposted by michaela t

Blue Heron Farm

@blueheronfarm.bsky.social

I guess I'll sit somewhere else

Two dogs taking up entirely too much room in the sofa

December 20, 2025 at 2:37 PM

Reposted by michaela t

Adam Serwer

@adamserwer.bsky.social

Not that it will but the willingness of Americans to obey is a very funny contrast with our self-image and should probably prompt some reflection bsky.app/profile/jonf...

Jonathan L. Fischer @jonfischer.bsky.social · 4d

NEWS: They're adding Trump's name to the Kennedy Center building right now. www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...

Kennedy Center adds Trump’s name to building

The signage change follows a vote by the board of trustees to rename the performing arts complex the Trump Kennedy Center.

www.washingtonpost.com

December 19, 2025 at 3:46 PM

Reposted by michaela t

The Herd House

@theherdhouse.bsky.social

Morning takes.
1. Cereal is soup.
H. Bed Chop. On the lamb and under the table.
::: barry took a pillow as a sofa hostage.
$. Bumbles Bounce!

James Earl Jones, Justin and Sia wait for breakfast. Justin and Sia have their tongues out. James is in the bed of soup - it’s breakfast so it’s cereal.

Benedict Cumberbatch is sleeping underneath a table with a silver sequin overlay and his trusty lambChop bed.

Barry stole a pillow and is under the sofa. He has a blue belly band on.

Anderson Cooper and the bumble stuffy are both jumping off the chair head first.

December 19, 2025 at 4:26 PM

Reposted by michaela t

Phil Lewis

@phillewis.bsky.social

I’m currently outside of the Kennedy Center:

The building now reads: “The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts”

December 19, 2025 at 7:46 PM

Reposted by michaela t

Moira Donegan

@moiradonegan.bsky.social

I don’t know how it works at the New York Times, but my editors at The Guardian would never let me publish this if they knew that I was one of the elites who spent time with Epstein. And if I published it without telling them, I would be out of a job.

Opinion column from David Brooks: The Epstein Story? Count Me Out.

I have been especially startled to see Ro Khanna, a House Democrat and one of the most impressive politicians in America, use the phrase “the Epstein class” in his public statements. In an interview with my colleague David Leonhardt this week, Khanna explained that he had gotten the phrase from voters who asked him if he was on the side of “forgotten Americans” or “the Epstein class.”

Photo of David Brooks at dinner with Jeffrey Epstein, from files released by the House Oversight Committee.

December 18, 2025 at 7:33 PM

Reposted by michaela t

Sarah Kendzior

@sarahkendzior.bsky.social

How nice for them that I have four books, hundreds of free articles, and hundreds of interviews on these topics!

(This is a factor on why I keep my work open to all and share book excerpts for free: my words are my best defense against slander and the selective amnesia plaguing the elites.)

AbbityBabbity @lessvisible.bsky.social · 4d

What's really frustrating is how often people who turned up their noses at your ideas now claim they "can't remember" how you were right a year (or two or ten) ago.

December 18, 2025 at 6:57 PM

Reposted by michaela t

jamelle

@jamellebouie.net

my latest is on the odd confluence of unitary executive theory with a president who is mostly AWOL from the business of governance (gift link)

Opinion | The White House Is a Lost Cause

www.nytimes.com

December 17, 2025 at 10:15 PM

Reposted by michaela t

Gillian Branstetter

@gbbranstetter.bsky.social

Freedom for everybody
Autonomy for everybody
Health care for everybody
Transgender for everybody

December 18, 2025 at 6:59 PM

Reposted by michaela t

Sarah Kendzior

@sarahkendzior.bsky.social

My top ten articles of 2025, a photo gallery of America, and more!
sarahkendzior.substack.com/p/my-top-ten...

The Top Ten Articles of 2025

My best writing of the year, a photo gallery of America, and a big sale!

sarahkendzior.substack.com

December 18, 2025 at 6:59 PM

Reposted by michaela t

Adam Serwer

@adamserwer.bsky.social

The wildest part is when it leaks whatever fallout they were trying to avoid will be ten times worse. In its own way that explains quite a bit www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/u...