Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Nicola Barber @nicolabarber.bsky.social · Apr 29

Elbows up!

Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · Apr 29

It's really hard to overstate how hugely favored conservatives were up until two months ago.

Here's the graph of Canadian polling between March 2023 and March 2025. (Reminder: blue is conservative.)

Those are months and months of 20+ point leads for Tories.

Reposted by Nicola Barber

Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · Apr 29

It's really hard to overstate how hugely favored conservatives were up until two months ago.

Here's the graph of Canadian polling between March 2023 and March 2025. (Reminder: blue is conservative.)

Those are months and months of 20+ point leads for Tories.

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Nicola Barber @nicolabarber.bsky.social · Apr 7

Pretty strong case for Liberals and Carney from Laura Loomer

A Page in your life 🍁📎 @sailorgirl2017.bsky.social · Apr 5

Laura Loomer:
“What can Americans do and what can President Trump do in these next 3 weeks before your election to make sure the interim Prime Minister, Mark Carney, does not hold another term.”
www.instagram.com/reel/DIAyVFm...

Nicola Barber @nicolabarber.bsky.social · Apr 5

It had to be done.

The top of a bottle of rose wine. A neutral face emoji with a straight, closed mouth is printed on the top of the cork. The face is punctured with the corkscrew to open the wine.

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Nicola Barber @nicolabarber.bsky.social · Apr 5

Never felt so seen by a wine cork.

The top of a bottle of rose wine. A neutral face emoji with a straight, closed mouth is printed on the top of the cork. You must puncture the face with the corkscrew to open the wine.

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Reposted by Nicola Barber

Senator Ron Wyden @wyden.senate.gov · Apr 3

Big news: on a bipartisan basis the Senate just voted to reject Trump's tariffs on Canada. The House has to vote on it next, where it's less likely to pass, but the cracks are starting to form. Trump is losing support from Republicans on his costly trade war.

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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · Mar 18

SCOOP—Trump plans to issue an executive order designating fentanyl as a "Weapon of Mass Destruction," per copy of EO reviewed by me. Source at State speculates purpose is to designate cartels as terrorist orgs/justify military ops in Mexico/Canada.

Context/full text of draft only on The Handbasket:

Trump to declare fentanyl “Weapon of Mass Destruction," per draft EO

A copy of the draft was obtained and reviewed by The Handbasket.

www.thehandbasket.co

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Yashar Ali 🐘 @yasharali.bsky.social · Mar 11

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy on Mahmoud Khalil.

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Nicola Barber @nicolabarber.bsky.social · Mar 7

Proud to see so many of my general biology students show up with signs and friends for our local #StandUpforScience rally at the University of Oregon!

A rally sign that reads defund fascism not science.

A rally sign that reads planet over profit. The letter O in over is the planet earth.

University of Oregon science supporters gathered at the local Stand Up for Science rally.

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Karen K. Ho @karenho.bsky.social · Mar 5

Jeff Douglas, an actor who pivoted into a pretty good CBC broadcaster, filmed a new video with a loud nod to an iconic Molson beer ad from *25* years ago about how Canadians are very different than Americans and absolutely don't want to be annexed by the US: youtu.be/_OzbmriDgQc?...

We Are Canadian

YouTube video by Jeff Douglas

youtu.be

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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · Mar 4

SCOOP: Now that Linda McMahon is confirmed/sworn in as secretary, Trump will be imminently issuing an executive order eliminating the Department of Education.

I’ve obtained a draft of an email that McMahon will be sending to staff re: the EO and the department’s “final mission”.

Here is a portion:

After President Trump's inauguration last month, he has steadily signed a slate of executive orders to keep these education promises: combatting critical race theory, DEl, gender ideology extremism, and discrimination in admissions. President Trump has also been focused on eliminating wasteful bureaucracy and harmful programs in the federal government. To that end, today he signed [Executive Order XYZ, entitled "Eliminating the Department of Education,] which has given us a clear and final mission.

We are to identify which of the Department's functions, programs, and offices are not mandated by statute, and eliminate them. This reorganization will impact staff, budgets, reporting, and more —and in coming months, we will determine how it can be accomplished with minimal delay and disruption. The President further tasked us with creating a plan to reallocate and reassign functions of the Department of Education that would be more effectively managed by other agencies. This plan will offer Congress a road map toward fulfilling the expectations of the President and the American people.

The new vision—which I hope each of you will embrace going forward—can be expressed as four main convictions:
Parents are the primary decision makers in their children's education.
Students deserve to be protected from physical violence, racial discrimination, medical tyranny, and gender extremism ideology on campus.
Postsecondary education should be a path to a well-paying career aligned with workforce needs.
Taxpayer-funded education should refocus on meaningful learning: proficiency in math, reading, and core subjects, and patriotism in American history and civics.
As we move to reduce the Department's middleman role in education, these four convictions must guide us toward conscientious and pragmatic action. The elimination of bureaucracy should free us, not limit us, in our pursuit of these goals

Removing red tape and bureaucratic barriers will empower parents to make th

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Nicola Barber @nicolabarber.bsky.social · Mar 1

Few things lift me up more than student’s passion and art ❤️

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derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · Mar 1

There has been a lot of chatter today about Zelenskyy's meeting with Trump, some regarding this moment when White House correspondent Brian Glenn asked if the Ukrainian president plans to wear a suit. I want to address idea in this thread. 🧵

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Nicola Barber @nicolabarber.bsky.social · Feb 27

Our public K-12 school district in Eugene OR is first to join the lawsuit against Trump admin deadline to end diversity programming. Proud of leadership here and hope others join to stand up for our students www.registerguard.com/story/news/e...

Eugene 4J becomes first public K-12 district in US to join suit vs. Trump administration

The lawsuit is over orders that critics say could destabilize education funding and "undermine efforts that support success of all students."

www.registerguard.com

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Reposted by Nicola Barber

Mark Hamill @markhamillofficial.bsky.social · Feb 22

Worst. Episode. EVER.

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Nicola Barber @nicolabarber.bsky.social · Feb 21

CANADA!!!!🇨🇦🏒🥅🥰

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André K. Isaacs @drdre4000.bsky.social · Feb 21

Diversity is our greatest asset, even if the government disagrees… They not like us! POC in STEM are here to stay.

They tried to rig the game but you can’t fake influence!
Mustard on the [Be][At] bro.

Happy Black History Month!

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Nicola Barber @nicolabarber.bsky.social · Feb 16

Gloves are off immediately in Canada USA hockey 👀🇨🇦🇺🇸🏒

Reposted by Nicola Barber

Rachel Lense is Professionally Curious @rachellense.bsky.social · Jun 14

I made this Pride flag using only NASA images and our team thought it would be cool to share on social (I work on the NASA heliophysics communications team), but it's getting all sorts of hate on the bird app and Fbook. Thought y'all might be more appreciative of it here. ☺️🏳️‍🌈💖

A pride flag with every color band represented by a NASA image. White is Earth clouds, pink is aurora, blue is the Sun in a specific wavelength, brown is Jupiter clouds, black is the Hubble deep field, red is the top of sprites, orange is a Mars crater, yellow is the surface of Io, green is a lake with algae, blue is Neptune, and purple is the Crab Nebula in a specific wavelength.

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Nicola Barber @nicolabarber.bsky.social · Feb 13

Canada vs USA hockey on Saturday is going to be 🔥

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Jennifer @jennyanydots00.bsky.social · Feb 13

There is definitely a change in attitude. Even in little things. Grocery stores are now clearly identifying Canadian products on the shelves and in flyers. PC now has a swap option in their app so you can easily find the Canadian version for items on your list.

A screenshot of the PC app. At the top is a red maple leaf with the title "Swap and Shop". The subtitle is "Choose items prepared in Canada" Two items are shown: Wonka Nerds Gummy Clusters Candy Rainbow and Maynards Swedish Berries Candy Gummy Candy. The Maynards is tagged with a red maple leaf and "Prepared in Canada" In the lower right of the screen there is a check box for "swap this item"

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Ghouly Hoye 🇨🇦 👻 @hollyhoye.bsky.social · Feb 12

Honestly, this guy. He’s so upbeat, so genuine, so optimistic. A bridge-builder. And this video shot in the snow is visually stunning.

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Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla.bsky.social · Feb 12

Top tip. Don’t have insomnia in the middle of a coup.

An executive order has now given DOGE oversight of all government departments.

It’s a complete takeover of the federal government by Musk. A Musk ‘team lead’ will now make all hiring decisions according to a ‘data-driven’ model

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · Feb 12

i am going to put a finer point on this: executive orders are not laws. and they certainly are not royal decrees. they are interpretations of existing law for the purposes of enforcement. the fact that so many people are treating them as laws is actually driving me a bit insane.

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · Feb 12

i mean, the president's executive order isn't a goddamn law! as far as this doctor is concerned, who cares what the president says!

NBC News @nbcnews.com · Feb 12

A New York City doctor said he will continue providing gender-affirming treatments to his patients younger than 19 despite President Donald Trump’s executive order aiming to ban such care.

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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · Feb 11

Hearing that DOGE went into the Dept of Education today and shut down almost the entirety of the department's in-house research arm, Institute of Educational Sciences, cancelling contracts totally about $900m.

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