Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Victor Silverman

Philosopher Jersey Flight @jerseyflight.bsky.social · 3h

“The furor grew after Fox News reported on the petition. Dr. Bray’s home address was revealed on social media. He received several death threats, including one vowing to kill him in front of his students.”

Jon Vander Pol @americantimes.bsky.social · 3h

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

Rutgers Expert on Antifa Tries to Flee to Spain After Death Threats

www.nytimes.com

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Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 4d

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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Shane Burley (Blue Sky Edition) @shaneburley.bsky.social · 1d

The attack on Mark is another stunt by right-wing grifters to victimize a random person in an effort to use MAGA fear mongering to justify their existence. It should go without saying we should do anything possible to support his family.

Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 4d

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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Victor Silverman @victorsilverman.bsky.social · 3h

Sad news

UC Berkeley Labor Center @ucblaborcenter.bsky.social · 5h

The UC Berkeley Labor Center mourns Kent Wong, our longtime colleague and friend. A passionate champion for workers—especially immigrants—and students, Kent dedicated his life to justice. Our hearts are with our colleagues at the UCLA Labor Center.

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Victor Silverman @victorsilverman.bsky.social · 3h

Delusional

A political position is the same as a criminal synficate is the same as a highly organized militia?

The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 10h

Noem: “We are hoping…we will get more and more information about the network and how we can route them out and eliminate them from the existence of American society…Antifa is just as sophisticated as MS-13, as TDA, as ISIS, as Hezbollah, as Hamas, as all of them. They are just as dangerous.”

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Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 12h

Stephen Miller has a theory of this moment, a theory of how to do fascist politics in a (teetering) liberal democracy, and Dems need to grapple with it. Do Dems have a theory of this moment that's matched to the challenge of authoritarian politics? I don't think they do:

Brian Beutler @brianbeutler.bsky.social · 17h

“Supercharging searing civil tensions over jarring high-profile events drives attention, jolts low-propensity voters out of their information ruts, and compels them to really take sides.” Yep, @gregsargent.bsky.social.

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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Victor Silverman @victorsilverman.bsky.social · 12h

"the president has almost limitless discretion to deploy federal troops in cases of civil unrest"

@josephanunn.bsky.social warns of the dangers of the Insurrection Act

Brennan Center @brennancenter.org · 1d

When can the president invoke the Insurrection Act? What does invoking it allow the military to do? Is it the same as declaring martial law? A Brennan Center explainer has the answers. bit.ly/3GsFBhL

The Insurrection Act Explained

The law, which lets the president deploy the military domestically and use it for civilian law enforcement, is dangerously vague and in urgent need of reform.

www.brennancenter.org

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Brennan Center @brennancenter.org · 1d

When can the president invoke the Insurrection Act? What does invoking it allow the military to do? Is it the same as declaring martial law? A Brennan Center explainer has the answers. bit.ly/3GsFBhL

The Insurrection Act Explained

The law, which lets the president deploy the military domestically and use it for civilian law enforcement, is dangerously vague and in urgent need of reform.

www.brennancenter.org

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Victor Silverman @victorsilverman.bsky.social · 1d

I guess this could be called a "Kavanaugh seige" rather an a Kavanaugh stop.

Horrifying

Daniel Knowles @dlknowles.bsky.social · 1d

Good reporting on the South Shore raid from South Side weekly here.

Confirms one thing I was told but didn't put in my own piece because I didn't have a second source and it seemed too insane: border agents segregated arrested residents by race

southsideweekly.com/federal-agen...

Federal Agents Storm South Shore Building, Detaining Families and Children

Families were woken by flashbangs and helicopters as hundreds of federal agents raided their homes. Days later, neighbors are still searching for the missing.

southsideweekly.com

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Victor Silverman @victorsilverman.bsky.social · 1d

“no rights have been violated today.”

I guess that is because the DHS officers don't believe the people they abused and seized have any rights...

Daniel Knowles @dlknowles.bsky.social · 1d

Good reporting on the South Shore raid from South Side weekly here.

Confirms one thing I was told but didn't put in my own piece because I didn't have a second source and it seemed too insane: border agents segregated arrested residents by race

southsideweekly.com/federal-agen...

Federal Agents Storm South Shore Building, Detaining Families and Children

Families were woken by flashbangs and helicopters as hundreds of federal agents raided their homes. Days later, neighbors are still searching for the missing.

southsideweekly.com

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Victor Silverman @victorsilverman.bsky.social · 1d

Because all secret information about events before the computer era is stored on computers...

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Gabe Ortíz @tusk81.bsky.social · 1d

When US citizen Leo Garcia Venegas tried to prove his identity by showing federal agents his REAL ID, they dismissed it as a fake and kept him detained, releasing him only after they bothered to run his Social Security number.

Just a few weeks later, they detained him again:

Mass Deportation Is A Threat To Us All

Aided by the Supreme Court and the insidious "Kavanaugh stop," the administration's chaotic mass deportation operations are sweeping up Americans – including children and U.S. military veterans.

americasvoicecnn.substack.com

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Yashar Ali 🐘 @yasharali.bsky.social · 1d

Zohran Mamdani’s statement on the second anniversary of October 7th.

Two years ago today, Hamas carried out a horrific war crime, killing more than 1,100 Israelis and kidnapping 250 more.
I mourn these lives and pray for the safe return of every hostage still held and for every family whose lives were torn apart by these atrocities.
In the aftermath of that day, Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Israeli government launched a genocidal war: a death toll that now far exceeds 67,000; with the Israeli military bombing homes, hospitals, and schools into rubble. Every day in Gaza has become a place where grief itself has run out of language.
I mourn these lives and pray for the families that have been shattered. Our government has been complicit through it all.
This must end. The occupation and apartheid must end.
Peace must be pursued through diplomacy, not war crimes and our government must act to end these atrocities and hold those responsible to account.
These last two years have demonstrated the very worst of humanity. We must answer it by modeling the very best: a relentless pursuit of our higher ideals and an unwavering commitment to universal human rights.

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More Perfect Union @moreperfectunion.bsky.social · 1d

For the first time in history renewable energy sources are now generating more power than coal worldwide.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Global renewable energy generation surpasses coal for first time

Record solar expansion and steady wind growth driving world’s shift away from fossil fuels in 2025, report finds

www.theguardian.com

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Ross Macfarlane @rossmacfarlane.bsky.social · 1d

All the kings horses and all the kings men .... Last coal plant in New England shuts down years ahead of scheduled retirement despite Trump Admin efforts to prop up coal. @canarymedia.com @sierraclub.org
www.canarymedia.com/articles/fos...

New England’s final coal plant shuts down years ahead of schedule

Poor economics drove the aging New Hampshire plant offline three years early, even as the Trump administration pushes to revitalize coal.

www.canarymedia.com

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Gregg Gonsalves @gregggonsalves.bsky.social · 2d

An important statement from #MIT faculty on Trump’s compact. #JustSayNo @nancykanwisher.bsky.social

Nancy Kanwisher @nancykanwisher.bsky.social · 2d

I am proud of MIT, where our branch of AAUP has voted unanimously to endorse this statement urging MIT leadership and the MIT Corporation to reject the Compact wholesale
docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Letter Regarding Compact

MIT Chapter of the American Association of University Professors October 6, 2025 Statement on the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” MIT has been invited by the federal governmen...

docs.google.com

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 2d

Everyone who was raising alarm bells under Bush and Obama are shouting “I told you!” right now.

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 2d

“.. it appears to justify an open-ended war against a secret list of groups, giving the president power to designate drug traffickers as enemy combatants and have them summarily killed without legal review.”

@cnn.com
www.cnn.com/2025/10/06/p...

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Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 4d

Look your nation right in the face

Screen shot from CNN article linked in the first comment “Across the country, US-born children have become collateral damage in the Trump administration's unprecedented crackdown on undocumented
immigrants. CNN identified more than
100 US citizen children, from newborns to teenagers, who have been left stranded without parents because of immigration actions this year, according to a review of verified crowdfunding campaigns, public records and interviews with families, friends, immigration attorneys and other advocates.”

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Victor Silverman @victorsilverman.bsky.social · 4d

What's next? Drone strikes on @open-society.bsky.social ?

David Rothkopf @djrothkopf.bsky.social · 4d

The words “terror networks” here are ominous as they can be used to implicate, intimidate and punish very nearly anyone whose views, donations, charitable work, political work, etc are defined by them as supporting those they oppose.

Lawrence Hurley @lawrencehurley.bsky.social · 4d

Stephen Miller again lashes out at the judiciary, suggesting federal judges are aiding and abetting domestic terrorism:

Victor Silverman @victorsilverman.bsky.social · 4d

Ominous

Btw This was the strategy outlined in Project Esther from Heritage, which described a broad diverse political movement as the "Hamas Support Network"

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Shibley Telhami @stelhami.bsky.social · 5d

Will Trump show real back bone in enforcing this "immediate" demand, or will he prove critics right - at least when it comes to Netanyahu - of being TACO?

Shibley Telhami @stelhami.bsky.social · 5d

Trump: "Israel must immediately stop the bombing of Gaza"

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Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 5d

This is fascism.

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La Jornada Internacional @lajornadainter.bsky.social · 6d

The UN on the Brink, in La Jornada Internacional, weekly newsletter of the Mexico City newspaper, La Jornada. lajornadainternacional.substack.com/p/the-un-on-...
#Mexico #LaJornada #LaJornadaInternacional #UN

The UN on the Brink

Also: At last, the word “genocide” is spoken by the Mexican government. In defense of Indigenous languages in Mexico. The origin of the anthem “The People United Will Never Be Defeated.”

lajornadainternacional.substack.com

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Alan Elrod @aselrod.bsky.social · 6d

Ending Black History Month & banning books by Ta-Nehisi Coates is a dark echo of the ways the military has been used in the past to advance racial rights in America.

Frederick Douglass understood Black military service could help achieve citizenship. Truman saw integration as democratic necessity.

Alan Elrod @aselrod.bsky.social · 6d

I wrote about Tuesday’s Quantico fascism fest. Something I think it’s important to stress is that the military can be a place for advancing social policy, for good or ill.

Hegseth is using it to implement his white Christian nationalist views. www.liberalcurrents.com/war-fighters...

War Fighters and the Enemy Within: Trump, Hegseth, and the Assault on The American People

Trump and Hegseth are cultivating a military that sees liberals and minorities as enemies to be fought and is willing to follow orders to do so.

www.liberalcurrents.com

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Human Rights Watch @hrw.org · 6d

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents will be on-site at Super Bowl LX, where Bad Bunny is headlining, a Trump adviser said.

Deploying abusive agencies to sporting events, concerts, or other public events is a cruel practice that should end.

ICE Will Be On Patrol At Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl Halftime Show

The NFL received right-wing backlash from its decision to have Bad Bunny headline its Super Bowl halftime show.

www.forbes.com

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