Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 4h

Trump has crossed so many lines, but I think it will be truly crossing the Rubicon if he jails Illinois Governor Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Johnson and replaces them with his cronies. At that point, which now seems all too possible, liberal democracy as we know it will be gone.

Screenshot of a Guardian article with the headline "Trump calls for jailing of Chicago mayor and Illinois governor as national guard arrives in city. President accused Brandon Jonson and JB Pritzker of failing to protect Ice officers as troops deploy to Chicago"

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Reposted by Spencer Beswick

Batallon Bakunin @batallonbakunin.bsky.social · 3d

This is where we are.

This man is a professor. Who has written a book. About antifascism. He’s just one of many in this situation; and his situation is just one amongst a sea of varied horrors that MAGA fascism is unleashing on society.

But this is where we are. Don’t look away.

Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 3d

I’ve received multiple death threats + doxing (including my home address) directly following harassment from Turning Point USA, Jack Posobiec, Andy NGO, + Fox News which called me an antifa ‘financier.’

I have been forced to move my classes online.

If journalists want to talk, DM me or reply here.

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Reposted by Spencer Beswick

Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 3d

I’ve received multiple death threats + doxing (including my home address) directly following harassment from Turning Point USA, Jack Posobiec, Andy NGO, + Fox News which called me an antifa ‘financier.’

I have been forced to move my classes online.

If journalists want to talk, DM me or reply here.

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 2d

"The point is to put forward a prototype for a new type of American government, for a post-Trump country, that carries forward part of the existing institutional framework that is worth preserving, alongside radical change in response to Trump."

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Blue states should come together to declare an emergency. Here’s how | Thomas Geoghegan

States opposed to Trump can create a compact – a new prototype for American government – even if it’s perceived as political theater

www.theguardian.com

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 2d

"Like the founders, we should create a limited, invitation-only body – an embryonic constitutional convention – that the anti-Trump blue states exclusively set up for themselves, limit to themselves, and control."

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Blue states should come together to declare an emergency. Here’s how | Thomas Geoghegan

States opposed to Trump can create a compact – a new prototype for American government – even if it’s perceived as political theater

www.theguardian.com

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 3d

Under Trump 1.0, higher ed leadership was full-throatedly part of "the resistance," proclaiming they would stand up to Trump, protect immigrant students, and fight for academic freedom. Now, they race to capitulate, fire lefty profs, and deport student activists. Shameful.

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Victor Ray @victorerikray.bsky.social · 3d

We are living under an aspiring fascist regime that has not yet fully consolidated. This is not difficult to understand unless you get paid to muddy the waters.

Tom Nichols @radiofreetom.bsky.social · 3d

If we were living under fascism, none of you would be here daring to post things. You'd be erasing your social media accounts and keeping your head down; you'd know that peacocking your faux-bravery on a network would expose you to being disappeared.
You have no idea what "fascism" really means.

shane @mouthfulofcavities.bsky.social · 3d

the regime is zip tying toddlers and ripping them away from their mothers unclothed... calling it fascism upsets this neo-con.

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 3d

Just opened a 13 page PDF and got two different messages asking if I want an AI summary because it's such a long document. Fuck off, Adobe!

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 5d

Can someone just set up a fake Nobel Prize to give Trump so he'll stop lusting after it, kinda like economists did for themselves?

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 5d

Emma Goldman: "Anarchism is not, as some may suppose, a theory of the future to be realized through divine inspiration. It is a living force in the affairs of our life, constantly creating new conditions."

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 5d

Albert Camus: "The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion."

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 6d

Oh and we're not in network for your insurance anymore by the way.

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 6d

Anyone else finding it kinda hard to get work done as our country descends into fascism?

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Reposted by Spencer Beswick

Jacobin @jacobinmag.bsky.social · 6d

In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s murder, a self-described “anti-communist cult leader” used a selectively edited video to falsely accuse labor historian and tenured professor Tom Alter of inciting violence.

Texas State University’s president swiftly fired him.

MAGA McCarthyism Comes to Texas State

In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s murder, a self-described “anti-communist cult leader” used a selectively edited video to falsely accuse labor historian and tenured professor Tom Alter of inciting violence. Texas State University’s president swiftly fired him.

jacobin.com

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Reposted by Spencer Beswick

Preorder Read This When Things Fall Apart @mskellymhayes.bsky.social · 6d

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 · 6d

"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

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 7d

I don't give a flying fuck that Hegseth called generals fat, I care that he and Trump are mobilizing the military for internal war and occupation of American cities!

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 7d

Mere affiliation with an anti-fascist organization is now grounds for discipline and potential firing of tenured professors. Unreal.

UNC professor placed on leave following alleged affiliation with 'anti-racist, anti-fascist' organization

Dwayne Dixon, a professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, has been placed on administrative leave effective immediately.

www.dailytarheel.com

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 7d

Yup and so much of the reporting is about Hegseth calling generals fat or whatever and I'm like I don't give a FUCK if he calls generals fat, I care that he and Trump are mobilizing the military for internal war!

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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 8d

The president just gathered the highest ranking officers in the military to tell them that he may order them to kill American citizens -- and that they better follow his orders. All in response to a series of crises that have no basis in reality.

I don't know how to yell any louder.

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 8d

The US president called for using American cities as "training grounds for our military" to combat the "invasion from within" -- AKA declaring war on US soil -- and I'm supposed to just carry on with my day? What a nightmare we live in.

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 8d

Top post on r/politics: Donald Trump suggests US cities be 'training grounds' for military

Top post on r/conservative: Trump and Hegseth declare an end to 'politically correct' leadership in the US military

Didn't realize "not declaring war on citizens" was politically correct.

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 8d

Trump went on to say that "I'm going to be meeting with generals and with admirals and with leaders, and if I don't like somebody, I'm gonna fire them right on the spot." Translation: if they don't profess loyalty and a willingness to fire on citizens in US cities, they're out.

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 8d

In his address to military leaders today, Trump said they should use American cities as "training grounds for our military" because "we are under invasion from within, no different than a foreign enemy, but worse—they don’t wear a uniform."

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Reposted by Spencer Beswick

Michael Clemens @mclem.org · 8d

“We are under invasion from within, no different than a foreign enemy, but worse—they don’t wear a uniform.”

This is the President of the United States, who ordered the entire leadership of our military to sit and listen to him, speaking a few minutes ago.

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Spencer Beswick @spencerbeswick.bsky.social · 9d

I remember in middle school I would sit in the library and read the magazine Popular Science and marvel at how cool the future was going to be. But the future has been cancelled, replaced with runaway climate catastrophe and rising fascism. Now what?

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