Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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SoloSojourner @solosojourner.bsky.social · 3h

The bar was subterranean, and clearing it doesn’t warrant applause. Let’s not confuse motion with momentum or proximity to a microphone with leadership.

2/2 #LeadersWeDeserve

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SoloSojourner @solosojourner.bsky.social · 3h

Come on Molly. “Credit where credit is due”? That’s generous to the point of parody. If Schumer “kicked it up a notch,” it was into the same ditch he’s been circling for years, performative gestures, procedural fog, and a knack for mistaking inertia for strategy.

1/2 #LeadersWeDeserve

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Brooke Harrington @ebharrington.bsky.social · 2h

Fugitive Womb Act

awkword @awkword.bsky.social · 8h

Cops used 83,000 cameras to track a single abortion patient — on her abuser’s tip.

Cops Used 83K Cameras to Track an Abortion Patient—on Her Abuser’s Tip

Turns out the cop was also an abuser

jessica.substack.com

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David Beard @dabeard.bsky.social · 2h

How long before the U.S. seeks to make the number “34” illegal because it is the number of a leader’s felony convictions?

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Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 2h

Once again @nytimes.com heds and subheds are failing to convey to readers what is actually happening. The casual reader will come away with the impression that this is a genuinely held rationale on Trump's part, rather than a corrupt pretext for lawless, authoritarian threats.

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Joanne Freeman @jbf1755.bsky.social · 2h

Correct.

He’s staging “left-wing” attacks—or more accurately, trying to provoke them—to give him an excuse to use violence against his opposition.

Being Liberal ®🗽🏳️‍🌈 @beingliberal.bsky.social · 2h

“I co-wrote Trump’s first anti-terrorism plan in 2017-18. He’s not trying to stop ‘left-wing’ terrorism. He is staging it,” Taylor wrote. “His troop deployments are a false flag — meant to provoke a response..."

open.substack.com/pub/beinglib...

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Rachel Maddow @maddow.msnbc.com · 2h

"The Federal Protective Service reports — which are prepared each day for law enforcement partners — offered no indication of a dangerous escalation of tensions, or unusual levels of protest activity that would prompt the level of alarm expressed by Trump..."

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/u...

Before Trump Ordered In Troops, Federal Officers Called Portland Protests ‘Low Energy’

www.nytimes.com

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Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 2h

something i learned this week! mailchi.mp/boltsmag/new...

Jane Goodall’s influence behind bars: The legendary primatologist Jane Goodall, who died last week at 91, helped inspire incarcerated people to learn more about wildlife and the environment by opening Roots & Shoots chapters inside jails in the U.S. and Italy, with some participants going on to launch careers in conservation post-incarceration. In 2015, Bolts' Alex Burness spent a day with her at the county jail in Boulder, Colorado, where she spoke to folks held there about all that people can learn from animals.

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Jonathan V. Last @jvl.bsky.social · 4h

This is capitulation. It is not the "Department of War." If CNN concedes on this point, they'll concede on any point.

Jon Passantino @passantino.bsky.social · 4h

CNN is now using the Trump preferred “Department of War” name in its official statements

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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 8h

news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/g...

Grand Jury Declines to Indict Two Chicago-Area ICE Protesters (1)

A federal grand jury declined to indict two people charged with assaulting law enforcement agents outside a suburban Chicago ICE facility, an attorney for one of the defendants said.

news.bloomberglaw.com

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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 5h

Fact-check: true

Kat Abughazaleh @katmabu.bsky.social · 5h

I can’t believe I have to say this, but historically, masked men who kidnap families in the middle of the night are usually not the good guys.

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Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 5h

a tidbit in our newsletter this week: how Jane Goodall was connected to criminal legal reform and U.S. jails.

if you're not already signed-up for it, what can i say! do it now!
boltsmag.org/newsletter

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Alt CDC (they/them) @altcdc.altgov.info · 8h

This year’s flu vaccine - about 50% effective
AND may cut healthcare visits & hospitalizations in HALF 🤯
(That’s HUGE! ’specially for those with chronic diseases or older than 65yo.)

#Altcomms 🔗 bsky.app/profile/altc...

(Can you tell we love this campgin & really miss our CDC comms ppl?!)

Green background. WildtoMild campaign. This one shows a crocodile (wild) and a cute lil’ gekko (maybe? lizard? it’s yellow and small and cute) (mild). It says “A Flu Vaccine can take Flu from Wild to Mild. If you have an underlying condition, talk to your provider about a flu vaccine. #Fight Flu” from the CDC

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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 8h

Gov. Pritzker after Trump calls for him to be jailed: “I will not back down… what else is left on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?”

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Taking Action 4 US🇺🇸🇪🇺🇺🇦🇩🇰🇬🇱🇨🇦🇩🇪📚📗 @takingaction4us.bsky.social · 2h

@johnsipher.bsky.social
The one unquestioned expert on🇺🇦, historian Timothy Snyder, has repeatedly explained🇺🇦can win. The analytic community needs to come to terms with its shortcomings & improve its tradecraft. Misjudging the strength of 🇨🇳 & 🇹🇼 could lead to disaster.

John Sipher @johnsipher.bsky.social · 8h

www.thecipherbrief.com/column_artic...

What Analysts Missed Before Russia’s Invasion - and What They're Still Missing

Whose analysis do we trust? John Sipher says, be careful what to believe after failed predictions at the start of the Ukraine war.

www.thecipherbrief.com

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John Sipher @johnsipher.bsky.social · 8h

Why does the media keep talking to failed analysts?

open.substack.com/pub/phillips...

The Harping On Ukrainian Manpower Shows How Little Analysts Understand War

Packing the front line with more infantry over the last two years would have made little difference and could have weakened Ukraine

open.substack.com

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Zack Beauchamp @zackbeauchamp.bsky.social · 8h

This is a moral crime of the first order. If there's a hell, Elon Musk would burn in it

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 8h

The elimination of USAID is a moral atrocity and all involved made a choice to enable, and then lie about, ending the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in the world.

MAE SOT, Thailand (AP) - Mohammed Taher clutched the lifeless body of his 2-year-old son and wept. Ever since his family's food rations stopped arriving at their internment camp in Myanmar in April, the father had watched helplessly as his once-vibrant baby boy weakened, suffering from diarrhea and begging for food.
On May 21, exactly two weeks after Taher's little boy died, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio sat before Congress and declared: "No one has died" because of his government's decision to gut its foreign aid program. Rubio also insisted: "No children are dying on my watch."
That, Taher says, "is a lie."

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Alan Elrod @aselrod.bsky.social · 8h

“Miller is working overtime to polarize the public debate about Trump's increasingly dictatorial abuses of power…He relentlessly depicts Democrats as allied with a vast, inchoate class of violent criminals and insurrectionists…” sharp read of what Stephen Miller wants from @gregsargent.bsky.social

Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 10h

JB Pritzker and Gavin Newsom are doing something new and important: They understand Stephen Miller's theory of fascist power politics, and they've developed a theory on how to combat it. More Dems need to reckon with Miller's understanding of the moment.

New from me:
newrepublic.com/article/2014...

Inside Stephen Miller’s Secret Plan to Normalize Trump’s Dictator Rule

He wants to supercharge searing civil tensions to get low-information voters to embrace their inner authoritarian. Exactly two Democrats appear to fully grasp this.

newrepublic.com

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Taking Action 4 US🇺🇸🇪🇺🇺🇦🇩🇰🇬🇱🇨🇦🇩🇪📚📗 @takingaction4us.bsky.social · 3h

Important, thoughtful @jfallows.bsky.social
We know where pressure is building up in commercial aviation. Too few controllers, under too much stress…too much scheduling & financial pressure…
The system’s had too many close calls…Something will have to give”
fallows.substack.com/p/air-travel...

Air Travel During the Shutdown. Do I Need to Worry?

Yes, but not about immediate safety risks.

fallows.substack.com

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Taking Action 4 US🇺🇸🇪🇺🇺🇦🇩🇰🇬🇱🇨🇦🇩🇪📚📗 @takingaction4us.bsky.social · 3h

@vermontgmg.bsky.social
We’re experiencing a “Constitutional crash—not in the plane crash sense, but in the medical sense—the sudden, ER-style flatlining of the healthy biorhythms of our 249-yr-old constitutional order…in a single blink of the historical eye“
www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/there-is-n...

There is no budget "deal" to be made

President Trump has so broken the constitutional framework as to make joint normal, responsible government impossible.

www.doomsdayscenario.co

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Wake County Indivisible @wakencindivisible.bsky.social · 3h

Keep calling about this!

Ted Budd 202-224-3154

Thom Tillis 202-224-6342

CAKE @thebandcake.bsky.social · 4h

The phone number for the U.S. Capitol switchboard is (202) 224-3121. #epstein

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Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 1d

I grew up going to Zabar's. So many of my childhood memories center around the best lox in NYC (which is saying something). With Saul Zabar's passing today, the Upper West Side has lost a legend who turned his parent's humble store into a culinary institution.

Saul Zabar, Smoked Fish Czar of Upper West Side, Dies at 97

www.nytimes.com

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Virginia Scharff @vscharff.bsky.social · 1d

Epstein Shutdown.

Brian Tyler Cohen @briantylercohen.bsky.social · 1d

This is Adelita Grijalva.

She was elected to Congress two weeks ago, officially making her the final vote needed to force the release of the Epstein files.

She has still not been sworn in because Mike Johnson refuses to do so.

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Tommy Tuberville on the 2020 census: "The Democrats were letting illegals come in for a different count. They obviously had a census going that was all rigged. The 2020 election basically was rigged."

(Believe it or not, Donald Trump was president in 2020.)

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Larry Glickman @larryglickman.bsky.social · 1d

Interesting to note that in 2013 the House voted unanimously, 407-0, to provide back pay for furloughed workers.

ouse unanimously approves back pay for 800,000 furloughed federal workers
The House on Saturday unanimously approved legislation to provide retroactive pay for furloughed federal workers after the government shutdown ends. The vote was 407-0.Approximately 800,000 government employees have been furloughed during the shutdown, although the Pentagon announced Saturday that it will call 300,000 of its furloughed civilian employees back to work

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