Trapper
LightNews LightNews
banner
trapp9.bsky.social
Trapper
@trapp9.bsky.social
220 followers 410 following 64 posts
Recovering journo, now working for places that don't pay but do provide free coffee.
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Trapper
royalpratt.bsky.social
64 days in Chicago: The story of Operation Midway Blitz. Our team fanned out to cover the before, during and after of the federal government’s months-long raid on an American city. This is worth your time to understand the United States today
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/28/c...
64 days in Chicago: The story of Operation Midway Blitz
President Donald Trump’s federal immigration enforcement operation led to most surreal autumn in Chicago history. What happened during those 64 days will be remembered for a long time.
www.chicagotribune.com
December 28, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Reposted by Trapper
mollyjongfast.bsky.social
Please read
December 25, 2025 at 8:56 PM
Reposted by Trapper
mollyjongfast.bsky.social
Here it is
bubbaprog.xyz Timothy Burke @bubbaprog.xyz · 7d
The full spiked 60 Minutes CECOT package, clean & subtitled. 1/5
December 23, 2025 at 1:37 AM
Reposted by Trapper
bgrueskin.bsky.social
In 2022, Bari Weiss ran this viral first-person piece by a top Levi’s executive. She claimed she was hounded out of the company because of her vocal stance on COVID restrictions.

There are no quotes from the company. Or her colleagues.

Not even a “no comment.”

www.thefp.com/p/yesterday-...
Yesterday I Was Levi’s Brand President. I Quit So I Could Be Free.
I turned down $1 million severance in exchange for my voice.
www.thefp.com
December 22, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Reposted by Trapper
acyn.bsky.social
Tapper: This is one of the documents the DOJ released. It’s 100 pages. It’s all black. That’s the transparency we’re getting.
December 19, 2025 at 10:18 PM
Reposted by Trapper
whitehouse.senate.gov
Trump’s new low on the economy (36% approval) will get worse as his corrupt attack on clean energy keeps raising families’ electric bills and home insurance costs. And wait til people understand this is ON PURPOSE to pay back his Big Oil political donors.
December 17, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Reposted by Trapper
tkeck44.bsky.social
This is one of the better things I've read in awhile.

www.nytimes.com/2025/12/05/o...
Opinion | What Trump Is Really Doing With His Boat Strikes
www.nytimes.com
December 5, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Reposted by Trapper
bgrueskin.bsky.social
NYT:
Five officials told us that Hegseth had nothing to do with the second strike

Washpost (which broke the story 2 days ago):
“This is ‘protect Pete’ bullshit,”
and
“It’s throwing us, the service members, under the bus.”
At the White House on Monday, Karoline Leavitt, the press secretary, read a statement that said Mr. Hegseth had authorized the Special Operations commander overseeing the attack, Adm. Frank M. Bradley, “to conduct these kinetic strikes.” She said that Admiral Bradley had “worked well within his authority and the law directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat to the United States of America was eliminated.” According to five U.S. officials, who spoke separately and on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter that is under investigation, Mr. Hegseth, ahead of the Sept. 2 attack, ordered a strike that would kill the people on the boat and destroy the vessel and its purported cargo of drugs. But, each official said, Mr. Hegseth’s directive did not specifically address what should happen if a first missile turned out not to fully accomplish all of those things. And, the officials said, his order was not a response to surveillance footage showing that at least two people on the boat survived the first blast. Admiral Bradley ordered the initial missile strike and then several follow-up strikes that killed the initial survivors and sank the disabled boat. As that operation unfolded, they said, Mr. Hegseth did not give any further orders to him. Her scripted remarks at a news briefing elicited a furious backlash within the Defense Department, where officials described feeling angry at the uncertainty over whether Hegseth would take responsibility for his alleged role in the operation — or leave the military and civilian staff under him to face the consequences. “This is ‘protect Pete’ bulls---,” one military official, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations, told The Post. Leavitt’s statement “left it up to interpretation” who was responsible for the second strike that killed the two survivors, a separate military official said, imploring the White House to provide clarity on the issue. One official said of Leavitt’s statement, “It’s throwing us, the service members, under the bus.” Another person said some of Hegseth’s top civilian staff appeared deeply alarmed about the revelations and were contemplating whether to leave the administration.
December 2, 2025 at 2:32 AM
Reposted by Trapper
meganranney.bsky.social
This is what public leadership looked like.

What a gorgeous obituary of a humble, brilliant, and principled man.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/29/u... 🛟🧪🩺
Walter Dowdle, Public Health Leader in Times of Crises, Dies at 94
www.nytimes.com
November 30, 2025 at 4:39 AM
Reposted by Trapper
chrismurphyct.bsky.social
The President of the United States just called for Democratic members of Congress to be executed. "HANG THEM", he posted.

If you're a person of influence in this country and you haven't picked a side, maybe now would be the time to pick a fucking side.
November 20, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Reposted by Trapper
rparloff.bsky.social
This hidden provision is so crooked and selfish, it doesn't even apply to US Representatives. Just US Senators.
rparloff.bsky.social Roger Parloff @rparloff.bsky.social · Nov 10
Look at this new outrage. To open govt, we're retroactively letting 8 Senators sue for $500K each over having had their J6 phone toll records looked at. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/10/u...
Spending Bill Would Pave Way for Senators to Sue Over Phone Searches
www.nytimes.com
November 11, 2025 at 12:43 AM
Reposted by Trapper
thetnholler.bsky.social
Devastating— “I’m afraid for my parents to leave the house. They treat us like dogs because of the color of our skin. I shouldn’t be scared, I should be focusing on school.”

A 16yo American living in fear of the Trump regime’s ICE goons terrorizing brown people pleads for help.
November 6, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Reposted by Trapper
cwebbonline.com
Excessive force. PERIOD!

They called them “violent mobs,” but the violence came from the guys with badges and body armor.

📌 Keep sharing videos, everyone, because they’re evidence.
November 6, 2025 at 1:02 AM
Reposted by Trapper
tonyromm.bsky.social
NEW: Millions of poor Americans could see $0 in SNAP benefits because of the way the Trump administration has implemented a court order, which required it to preserve the program during the shutdown.

Others may get about $12 in partial payments.

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/05/u...
Some SNAP Recipients May Not Receive Food Stamps Under White House Policy
www.nytimes.com
November 5, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Reposted by Trapper
jimmykimmel.com
Ronald Reagan said it. #NoKings tomorrow 10/18
October 17, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Reposted by Trapper
aawayne.bsky.social
"It doesn't get more tinfoil hat."

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is preparing to investigate *chemtrails,* according to an internal memo @stephaniearmour.bsky.social obtained.

A department spokeswoman notably did not deny it.

kffhealthnews.org/news/article...
It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s a Chemtrail? New Conspiracy Theory Takes Wing at Kennedy's HHS - KFF Health News
The idea that airplane vapors are toxic to people or that there are ongoing efforts to intentionally change the climate made the social media rounds. Now, it has found advocates at the Department of Health and Human Services.
kffhealthnews.org
October 16, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Reposted by Trapper
adamserwer.bsky.social
www.wweek.com/culture/2025...
Can you put into words what that purpose is? You and the frog have really become icons of this protest. There’s been a nice overall whimsy that has shown up. The frog is amazing. We had a bunch of other inflatable people here last night, too. I saw people playing Twister the other day. What they rely on is fear. So by coming out in an absurdist manner, it speaks to them, to some extent, that we’re actually not that afraid. It also dismantles their narrative a little bit. When they try to describe this situation as “war-torn,” it becomes much harder to take them seriously when they have to post a video saying [U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security] Kristi Noem is up on the balcony staring over the Antifa Army and it’s, like, eight journalists and five protesters and one of them is in a chicken suit.
October 10, 2025 at 1:23 AM
Reposted by Trapper
donmoyn.bsky.social
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."
October 8, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Reposted by Trapper
darrigomelanie.bsky.social
I feel like this photo of masked, armed men pepper spraying a pastor protecting his community is going to be a defining picture of this moment in America for a long, long time.
October 7, 2025 at 11:29 PM
Reposted by Trapper
bgrueskin.bsky.social
If a federal judge, appointed by Trump, can call him “simply untethered to facts,” our White House press corps can as well.

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
In sum, the President is certainly entitled "a great level of deference," Newsom II, 141 F.4th at 1048, in his determination that he "is unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States." 10 U.S.C. § 12406(3). But "a great level of deference" is not equivalent to ignoring the facts on the ground. As the Ninth Circuit articulated, courts must "review the President's determination to ensure that it reflects a colorable assessment of the facts and law PAGE 22 - OPINION AND ORDER Case 3:25-cv-01756-IM Document 56 Filed 10/04/25 Page 23 of 31 within a 'range of honest judgment.'" Id. at 1051 (quoting Sterling, 278 U.S. at 399). Here, this Court concludes that the President did not have a "colorable basis" to invoke § 12406(3) to federalize the National Guard because the situation on the ground belied an inability of federal law enforcement officers to execute federal law. Id. at 1051-52. The President's determination was simply untethered to the facts. c. Whether there is a Rebellion or Danger of Rebellion Defendants also aroue that the Sentember 28 2025 federalization order is authorized
October 5, 2025 at 12:19 AM
Reposted by Trapper
katelynburns.com
For my Burns Notice newsletter, I wrote about what it was like being a trans person and see the entire right wing try to incite pogrom on us over the last several weeks. burns-notice.ghost.io/what-am-i-su...
What Am I Supposed to Tell My Terrified Friends?
Every time there's a mass shooting in the US, my trans friends and I hold our collective breath. If the shooter turns out to be trans, it could signal the final days of our human rights in a country t...
burns-notice.ghost.io
September 24, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Reposted by Trapper
scalzi.com
Yuuuuup. Also, I don't give a shit if some of the worst people in the world think I am being performative or am virtue signaling. Fuck 'em. They don't get to tell me how to be.

Anyway, trans rights are human rights, y'all. It's not complicated.
crobertcargill.bsky.social C. Robert Cargill @crobertcargill.bsky.social · Sep 13
To my fellow cishet dudes: when we are quiet about supporting the trans community, the only voices anyone hears are the Charlie Kirks of the world. Don't let accusations of being "performative" or "virtue signaling" shut you up - that's their whole point. Our voices are needed now more than ever.
September 13, 2025 at 11:19 PM
Reposted by Trapper
erininthemorning.com
There has been a rush among centrists like Gavin Newsom and Ezra Klein to brush over the hateful life of Charlie Kirk and valorize the man.

Let me be clear, killing Charlie Kirk was wrong and abhorrent.

We must condemn murder without sanitizing a man who built his empire on hate.

My latest piece.
We Must Not Posthumously Sanitize Charlie Kirk's Hateful Life
Influential anti-LGBTQ+ activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated on Wednesday. While condemning violence is something most can get behind, sanitization of his hate has gone too far.
www.erininthemorning.com
September 11, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Reposted by Trapper
edwardsanthonyb.bsky.social
Most of Chinese Camp has burned to the ground, according to Chronicle photojournalist @stephenlamphoto.bsky.social. Some residents of the historic Gold Rush town stayed to fight the blaze, despite evacuation orders.
#CAwx #CAfire
www.sfchronicle.com/california-w...
September 3, 2025 at 4:16 AM
Reposted by Trapper
markharris.bsky.social
This is such a no-brainer that the lack of a coordinated response feels deeply damning. A Democratic leadership team that can't mobilize an instant all-hands-on-deck effort on RFK Jr. isn't a leadership team at all.
schooley.bsky.social Schooley @schooley.bsky.social · Aug 28
I know Democrats are overwhelmed (or rudderless, if you are less charitable) by the sheer volume of Trump authoritarian moves, but I’d like to see them unified behind specific goals like “RFK Jr is a threat to public health and needs to go.”
August 28, 2025 at 3:42 AM