Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

molly taft

@mollytaft.com

35K followers 980 following 1.9K posts

disaster lesbian on the apocalypse beat @wired.com . very tall with a very short dog. pitch me: [email protected], signal: @mollytaft.76. mollytaft.com

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

molly taft @mollytaft.com · Aug 20

SCOOP: FEMA is now requiring disaster survivors to sign up to receive aid using an email address - a move that is already putting some of the country’s most vulnerable people at risk of missing out on federal help, employees told me:

FEMA Now Requires Disaster Victims to Have an Email Address

Workers at FEMA worry that demanding disaster survivors access services using email could shut out people without internet connectivity from receiving government aid.

www.wired.com

10 110 260

Reposted by molly taft

Robinson Meyer @robinsonmeyer.bsky.social · 19h

NEW: Trump is moving to kill all funding for proposed Texas and Louisiana mega-hubs to capture CO₂ from the atmosphere

The bipartisan-backed hubs represented a rare clean tech industry where the US was on the cutting edge

by @emilypont.bsky.social for @heatmap.news

heatmap.news/politics/doe...

Trump to Cancel Direct Air Capture Hubs in Texas, Louisiana

A new list of grant cancellations obtained by Heatmap includes Climeworks and Heirloom projects funded by 2021 infrastructure law.

heatmap.news

14 60 120

molly taft @mollytaft.com · 18h

no no not at all! i logged off because AI slop is bad, i don't like getting constantly monetized, and we're all getting surveilled all the time lmao

1 2

molly taft @mollytaft.com · 19h

the addendum here is that someone at a climate week event the other day said they used to love my tweets and i got a nostalgic dopamine rush from the time when i was a Slightly Bigger Poster. miss that high sometimes

1 4

molly taft @mollytaft.com · 19h

it's probably not great for my career (i'm so sorry if you followed me for my Takes! i do miss posting those!) but honestly it's great for my brain. log off!!! you don't have to post anything, really!!!!!!!

1 11

molly taft @mollytaft.com · 19h

truly the one saving grace of [waves hands] All This is that i just post less. why would i? what use does it do

1 17

molly taft @mollytaft.com · 19h

as a lifelong internet addict it is remarkable how much the past nine months have compelled me to log off

8 14 160

Reposted by molly taft

dell cameron @dell.bsky.social · 1d

Boston Globe follows up on my reporting last Friday, which placed the formation of a new ICE surveillance unit in Vermont.

The Globe asks and answers the question: "Why the hell Vermont?"

www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/06/m...

The department’s outsize presence in Vermont is attributable to one man: former Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. For nearly half a century, Leahy steered a tsunami of federal funding to the state, particularly after he became the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee and then the Senate Appropriations Committee.
In 1991, according to the Burlington Free Press, Leahy helped bring a branch of what was then known as the US Immigration and Naturalization Service to Vermont. Over the next few years, he brought precursors of the National Criminal Analysis and Targeting Center and the Law Enforcement Support Center to the state.
“If it can be anywhere, why not have it in Vermont?” the senator said at the time, according to the Free Press.

4 41 92

Reposted by molly taft

Andrew Couts @couts.bsky.social · 5d

NEW: ICE is planning to hire a team of nearly 30 people to surveil social media 24/7, build dossiers on people, and flag them for arrest and deportation. @dell.bsky.social has the scoop: www.wired.com/story/ice-so...

ICE Wants to Build Out a 24/7 Social Media Surveillance Team

Documents show ICE plans to hire dozens of contractors to scan X, Facebook, TikTok, and other platforms to target people for deportation.

www.wired.com

800 4.9K 6.5K

Reposted by molly taft

Preorder Read This When Things Fall Apart @mskellymhayes.bsky.social · 5d

We need a bigger national spotlight on this building raid, fam. Agents dropped from helicopters onto the roof. Citizens and non-citizens alike were dragged from their homes in the night. People who weren't kidnapped during the raid had their belongings seized after the fact. This is madness.

Preorder Read This When Things Fall Apart @mskellymhayes.bsky.social · 5d

"Jones, 27, is among the residents left at 7500 S. South Shore Drive who are trying to piece together what remains after an early morning, high-powered federal immigration raid led to the arrests of dozens of their neighbors at their South Shore apartment building."

Massive immigration raid on Chicago apartment building leaves residents reeling: 'I feel defeated'

The Department of Homeland Security said federal agents with Border Patrol, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrested 37 people in the raid.

chicago.suntimes.com

230 5.5K 8.8K

molly taft @mollytaft.com · 5d

the coolest guy in the movie is benicio del toro who gets stressed out not by feds raiding his home but by leo dicaprio wearing shoes on his dojo mat

molly taft @mollytaft.com · 5d

haven’t been able to stop thinking about this movie and all the ways it captures how powerful christofascists are just total fucking losers

molly taft @mollytaft.com · 6d

ok so one battle after another fucking RIPPED

2 1 19

Reposted by molly taft

Anjali Enjeti @anjalienjeti.bsky.social · 6d

My god.

“Watson said she saw agents dragging residents, including kids, out of the building without any clothes on and into U-Haul vans. Kids were separated from their mothers…’It was heartbreaking to watch…seeing kids coming out buck naked and taken from their mothers, it was horrible.’”

Massive immigration raid on Chicago apartment building leaves residents reeling: 'I feel defeated'

The Department of Homeland Security said federal agents with Border Patrol, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrested 37 people in the raid.

chicago.suntimes.com

630 5.4K 8.7K

molly taft @mollytaft.com · 6d

the way open ai is trying to hype its ai slop tiktok actually gives me some hope that users will get sicker of ai generated content than they would if it wasn’t being continually pushed on them

molly taft @mollytaft.com · 6d

i would bet money maya rudolph helped pta write those white supremacist clubhouse scenes

molly taft @mollytaft.com · 6d

ok so one battle after another fucking RIPPED

3 54

Reposted by molly taft

Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 6d

"If we lose hope, we're doomed."

We must continue Dr. Jane Goodall's mission and all fight for the future of the planet.

160 4.3K 13K

Reposted by molly taft

jael holzman @jael.bsky.social · 7d

new @heatmap.news exclusive data shows more than a quarter of americans say they’re currently experiencing rapid electricity price increases that are having “a lot” of impact on their personal finances

More Than Half of Americans Are Already Feeling Squeezed by Power Prices

More than a quarter say they’re being hit hard, according to a Heatmap Pro poll.

heatmap.news

3 37 120

molly taft @mollytaft.com · 7d

one thing that gives me hope is that judging from tiktok comments sections, reaction imagery meme culture is alive and well even when ai can make you a middling picture of anything you want

2 6

molly taft @mollytaft.com · 8d

it’s a great question!! A month would be an ABSOLUTE BLESSING but one week i think is very reasonable. the more time the better basically!

1 1

molly taft @mollytaft.com · 8d

a mea culpa for science and climate press people: a day or two-long embargo for something genuinely interesting that has science/technical elements is WAY TOO SHORT to actually cover said thing! it makes me sad!! xoxox a journalist who wants tips

1 1 20

Reposted by molly taft

shanley @shanley.com · 11d

"For some of the wealthiest and most powerful people on Earth today, the political division that matters isn’t right or left, Democrat or Republican—it’s the nation-state versus the network state."

💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯

Vittoria Elliott @telliotter.bsky.social · 11d

NEW from me for @wired.com's politics issue: I have spent SO much time fascinated by the "network state"--privatized cities in special economic zones (SEZs) where the normal rules and regulations don't apply.

www.wired.com/story/tech-b...

Tech Billionaires Already Captured the White House. They Still Want to Be Kings

From Montenegro to Northern California, the tech elite dream of building cities where they make the rules. Is this, finally, their moment?

www.wired.com

13 21

molly taft @mollytaft.com · 8d

late to this incredible piece on the tech elite's obsession with making their own nation-states from my brilliant colleague @telliotter.bsky.social ; the lede made me literally lol

Tech Billionaires Already Captured the White House. They Still Want to Be Kings

From Montenegro to Northern California, the tech elite dream of building cities where they make the rules. Is this, finally, their moment?

www.wired.com

8 38 150

molly taft @mollytaft.com · 11d

it's super cool to open x and see a new campaign ad set to run in your home state that uses the phrase "violent they/them radicals." anyway it's all horseshit of course

Heritage Foundation Uses Bogus Stat to Push a Trans Terrorism Classification

By inflating numbers and narrowing definitions, Heritage promotes a false link between transgender identity and violence in its push for the FBI to create a new terrorism category.

www.wired.com

1 35 180

Reposted by molly taft

jael holzman @jael.bsky.social · 11d

Scoop: Trump lost the legal battle over halting the offshore Revolution Wind project after Orsted, its developer, brought reams of evidence to court alleging the government was lying about military security concerns.

It’s a sign truth can empower companies Trump targets.

Via @heatmap.news

How Trump’s Case Against Revolution Wind Fell Apart

The administration argued in the name of national defense — but Orsted had receipts.

heatmap.news

18 530 1.7K