Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Paul Holmes @provokepaul.bsky.social · 13h

The Washington Post thinks this is the most important story in the country right now.

Am I the only one who remembers when the Washington Post was a serious newspaper?

VA’s disability program is an ‘honor system.’ These veterans are defrauding it.

Post investigation finds VA’s $193 billion disability program has turned into a rich target for fraudsters. Some fake blindness or paralysis to get as much as $1 million.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Reposted by Paul Holmes

Auston Habershaw @aahabershaw.bsky.social · 1d

Social media post by Josh Crowley (sp?): If I build a big robot that consumed 33% of my state's electricity so it could go around stealing people's art I would be arrested, and that's how you know law is a social construct.

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Paul Holmes @provokepaul.bsky.social · 15h

I know this is an old cliche, but can you imagine the outcry from politicians and the media if a Democratic president was responsible for violence against a pastor.

Of course this guy appears to be an actual Christian, not a racist grifter, so maybe it doesn't count.

Omg. WTF is Happening? @lalahaenzy.com · 16h

Make this go viral.
Lead pastor in Chicago, Rev. David Black, is being pepper sprayed directly into his eyes by an ICE Agent.
Keep fighting. 🔥

A photo of a federal ice agent spraying pepper spray directly into reverend David Black of Chicago

Paul Holmes @provokepaul.bsky.social · 16h

Paying people for their stuff would kill the burlary business

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.

buff.ly

Paul Holmes @provokepaul.bsky.social · 21h

People like Stephen Miller, and the people he has recruited to ICE, thrive on cruelty. When there are no more immigrants to inflict cruelty upon, they will need to find a new target. However you identify, eventually they will get to you.

Joe Walsh @walshfreedom.bsky.social · 1d

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Paul Holmes @provokepaul.bsky.social · 22h

NYT editor: "Pam Bondi just got grilled by Senators about the Epstein riles, and was too scared to give a single straight answer, what headline do you think she'd like us to put on the front page story?

Other NYT editor: I got this....

Pressed on Justice Dept. Politicization, Bondi Goes on Attack

www.nytimes.com

Paul Holmes @provokepaul.bsky.social · 22h

Waiting for Trump to tweet about dangerous wild animals prowling the streets,

Courtney Vaughn @courtneyvaughn.bsky.social · 1d

Streets are still closed off in front of the Portland ICE facility at 8:30pm. Protesters have gathered on a side street. Dance party in progress.

Paul Holmes @provokepaul.bsky.social · 1d

It must have been like being back in high school, where the cool kids were so mean to him.

Oliver Willis @owillis.bsky.social · 1d

stephen miller ran to fox news to whine about aoc being mean to him and said she went to the jerk store www.dailykos.com/stories/2025...

AOC hits Stephen Miller right where it hurts, and he can't take it

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez laughed off top Trump henchman Stephen Miller after he whined about her Monday night on Fox News. Miller appeared for a friendly interview with right-wing ...

www.dailykos.com

Paul Holmes @provokepaul.bsky.social · 1d

People say she's too dumb to be AG but she's smart enough not to perjure herself.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

NOTABLE -- Pam Bondi refuses to answer direct questions about if the FBI has incriminating photos of Trump with half-naked young women, but instead deflects from them by attacking Sen. Whitehouse

Paul Holmes @provokepaul.bsky.social · 1d

I have always wondered what happens to Walmart greeters when they "retire."

Kristen Wixx @kristenwixx.bsky.social · 2d

Just one? I have several.

Post from Joseph Wade. Shown are two different kinds of Halloween skulls listed for sale at Walmart: Skull and Faux Skull. The text reads, "Hey, Walmart? I have a very important question to ask..."

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Paul Holmes @provokepaul.bsky.social · 1d

But presumably all I have to do is find a medbed and the ions and stuff will make it all better?

Hoodlum 🇺🇸 @nothoodlum.bsky.social · 1d

RFK Jr. said this during his appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast (episode #1999). We are so doomed. 😳

Paul Holmes @provokepaul.bsky.social · 1d

I am not an expert, but is ICE America's first state-sponsored domestic terrorism group?

Just Jack @just-jack-1.bsky.social · 2d

Let’s fast forward to when these ICE fuckers are all on trial for their crimes against humanity and the Constitution.

Paul Holmes @provokepaul.bsky.social · 1d

The term "crisis actor" is way, way over-used and usually a lie.

But if anyone can think of a better term to describe Adam Rubenstein's claim that people were mean to him because he liked a chicken restaurant, please tell me what it is.

(Other than "giant fucking baby".)

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 1d

Two people whose original claims to fame were that the other staffers at the New York Times thought they were whiny weirdos.

One felt "ostracized" because he liked Chik fil A, the other quit because she was "bullied" there.

They're the poster children for self-imposed cancel culture martyrdom.

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 2d

crazy that one of the most storied institutions in american journalism is going to be run by two people with basically no experience to do it

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Paul Holmes @provokepaul.bsky.social · 1d

It ends in a Y, so yeah

Blue sky nice guy @rajandelman.bsky.social · 1d

Today is a beautiful day for the Yankees to lose

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Paul Holmes @provokepaul.bsky.social · 1d

There was a time when the importance of protecting children was a shared value.

School shootings -- and the prevailing wisdom that guns are more important than kids' lives -- eroded that consensus.

Which is how we arrive at a major political party covering up for pedophiles.

Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 1d

“The crimes of Jeffrey Epstein and those who participated in them is a decades long abdication of institutional and personal responsibility, brought to light by a handful of dedicated journalists and the breathtaking bravery of once isolated, ignored vulnerable women.”

slate.com/news-and-pol...

The National Failure at the Heart of the Jeffrey Epstein Story

It is a great challenge to pay sustained attention to any one of the onslaught of moral or legal indignities unfolding in this moment.

slate.com

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Paul Holmes @provokepaul.bsky.social · 1d

"Body-camera video appears to contradict the government’s claim..."

I think the phrase you're looking for is "The government lied its ass off when it claimed..."

The media's insistence on reporting law enforcement lies as it they might be true is indefensible.

Chicago Sun-Times @chicago.suntimes.com · 2d

Body-camera video appears to contradict the government’s claim that Marimar Martinez, 30, drove toward officers before one of them opened fire at her late Saturday morning in Brighton Park, her attorney claimed.
trib.al/9Sxu9IN

Attorney for woman shot by Border Patrol claims officer said 'Do something b-----' before shooting

Body-camera video appears to contradict the government's claim that Marimar Martinez, 30, drove toward officers before one of them opened fire at her late Saturday morning in Brighton Park, her attorney claimed. A judge ordered Martinez and a co-defendant released pending trial.

trib.al

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Paul Holmes @provokepaul.bsky.social · 1d

Those 28% who trust legacy media have to be the lowest of low information voters.

Charlotte Clymer @charlotteclymer.bsky.social · 1d

Gallup has been surveying Americans' trust in legacy media since 1972. This year, a mere 28 percent of the public have "a great deal" or "a fair amount" of trust in legacy media, its lowest level in more than five decades of tracking.

news.gallup.com/poll/695762/...

Paul Holmes @provokepaul.bsky.social · 2d

And by "contrarian" we mean completely aligned with the rich and powerful.

NPR @npr.org · 2d

CBS' parent company will buy The Free Press and install Bari Weiss, its contrarian founder, as editor in chief of CBS News. n.pr/4o634cr

CBS' next top editor to be Bari Weiss of The Free Press

CBS' parent company will buy The Free Press and install Bari Weiss, its contrarian founder, as editor in chief of CBS News.

n.pr

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Paul Holmes @provokepaul.bsky.social · 2d

It is interesting though that before starting The Free Press and becoming a full-time conservative shill, Weiss had a (not very successful) career as a journalist. I assume her animus towards the media comes from her inability to make it in journalism.

Lydia Polgreen @polgreen.bsky.social · 2d

Not to be a pedant but Bari Weiss was a junior editor who occasionally wrote opinion pieces in the opinion section, not a columnist.

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Paul Holmes @provokepaul.bsky.social · 2d

One good follow up question would be to ask how many white people have been stopped by ICE in recent weeks.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

DHS's Tricia McLaughlin: "It is a disgusting smear to say there is racial profiling going on."

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Paul Holmes @provokepaul.bsky.social · 2d

If you think of yourself as plugged in to the political discourse but can't see that the Christo-fascism that dominates modern conservatism is a carbon copy of "radical Islam," I can't help you.

Except to point outthat the former is to actual Christianty what the latter is to real Islam.

Maia @maiamindel.bsky.social · 3d

what the fuck is going on

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Paul Holmes @provokepaul.bsky.social · 2d

This.

Democrats had a chance to stand up for the rule of law and the constitution.

They chose not to do so for political reasons.

Cowardice and its consequences.

Bernie @bernfost1.bsky.social · 3d

Who else thinks that everything we’re experiencing with Ice and the National guard is because there were no consequences for the man responsible for the January 6th Insurrection.

Paul Holmes @provokepaul.bsky.social · 2d

This is not an article about AI. Or actresses.

It is an article about Tyler Cowen's profound discomfort with and dislike of actual human women.

David Klemperer @dmk1793.bsky.social · 3d

Tyler Cowen blogs one-handed

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Paul Holmes @provokepaul.bsky.social · 2d

Struggling to think of a single democracy that has deployed its military against its own people without destroying itself in the process. Uruguay in the 60s maybe (did not end well).

Rep. Ted Lieu @reptedlieu.bsky.social · 3d

We do not deploy American forces against Americans in our own cities.

Our military is not trained for domestic law enforcement.

It’s illegal and un-American.

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Paul Holmes @provokepaul.bsky.social · 2d

Carpenter, Body Horror, Hong Kong Actioners.... this month is so much in my wheelhouse.

Blue sky nice guy @rajandelman.bsky.social · 2d

The bittersweet feeling of looking at a Criterion Channel collection and having seen half the films. Like damn, I'm really getting older

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