Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by William Perrin

Dan Nexon @dhnexon.bsky.social · 54m

Fun fact: the U.S. did not have a professional diplomatic corp for much of its history. Businessmen doing shit drove a lot of U.S. policy, including the acquisition if imperial territories in the Pacific.

Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 56m

Is Jared a government employee given that he's running around doing diplomacy or...?

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Jared Holt @jaredlholt.bsky.social · 1h

I went ahead and did the starting work for someone who wants to chase this angle. Most right-wing influencers who participated in the "Antifa" roundtable at the White House yesterday have easily provable ties to TPUSA (8 of 12). The other four need a closer look I don't have time for right now.

right-wing influencers standing for a photo together at the white house

(Left to Right)

Jack Posobiec - TPUSA employee
Seamus Bruner - Government Accountability Institute (GAI)
James Klug - TPUSA Ambassador
Jonathan Cho - TPUSA employee
Nick Sortor - Influencer
Julio Rosas - Former TPUSA, Blaze Media
Nick Shirley - Influencer
Andy Ngo - Human Events Media Group*
Brandi Kruse - Influencer
Savannah Hernandez - TPUSA employee
Katie Daviscourt - Former TPUSA, Human Events Media Group*
Cam Higby - TPUSA employee

(Human Events Media Group is closely tied to TPUSA. https://humanevents.com/about-human-events )

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Keith W. Dickinson @keithwdickinson.bsky.social · 1d

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

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

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Bloomberg News @bloomberg.com · 8h

By wooing Nigel Farage, the crypto industry is linking its fortunes to a maverick politician who has compared Bitcoin’s "insurgency" to that of his own party.

Crypto Helped Get Trump Elected. Now It’s Wooing UK’s Farage

In late July, senior executives from some of the world’s largest digital-asset companies gathered in the City of London to hear Zia Yusuf, head of policy at the right-wing Reform UK party, lay out his vision for crypto’s role in Britain’s financial industry.

bloom.bg

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Sen. Adam Schiff @schiff.senate.gov · 1d

Another day.

Another presidential threat to jail two of his political opponents.

What will it take for Republicans in Congress to speak out?

While we still have a democracy left.

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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 1d

What was that Sooty? The children can't hear you!

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James O’Brien @mrjamesob.bsky.social · 1d

Lords Heseltine & Kinnock seem more alive to these self-evident truths than most members of the Commons. Similarly, I find thinkers with direct lived experience of far right dictatorship, Greeks of a certain age for example, crystal clear about what’s happening now.

BBC Newsnight @bbcnewsnight.bsky.social · 1d

“You described Reform and other parties across Europe today as among the 'right wing equivalents of the fascists in the 1930s'. Why?”

“Because that’s what they are”

@vicderbyshire.bsky.social asks Lord Heseltine about remarks he made at Conservative Party Conference.

#Newsnight

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The Onion @theonion.com · 1d

U.S. Military Carries Out Strike On Scuffy The Tugboat https://theonion.com/u-s-military-carries-out-strike-on-scuffy-the-tugboat/

U.S. Military Carries Out Strike On Scuffy The Tugboat
Pentagon Claims Little Red Vessel Working With ‘Narco-Terrorists’

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DEMSEC @demsec.bsky.social · 1d

Stephen froze like a deer in the headlights and pretended to have connection issues because he unintentionally gave away the game plan.

“Plenary authority is complete, absolute power over a specific area or issue, with no significant limitations."

Show people this clip. This is an insane slip up.

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The Secret Barrister @barristersecret.bsky.social · 1d

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BBC Newsnight @bbcnewsnight.bsky.social · 1d

“You described Reform and other parties across Europe today as among the 'right wing equivalents of the fascists in the 1930s'. Why?”

“Because that’s what they are”

@vicderbyshire.bsky.social asks Lord Heseltine about remarks he made at Conservative Party Conference.

#Newsnight

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ProPublica @propublica.org · 2d

Heather Honey, a high-profile denier of Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election, was appointed to a senior DHS position in which she’ll help oversee election security.

“DHS now appears poised to become a primary amplifier of false election conspiracies pushed by our enemies,” one expert said.

She Pushed to Overturn Trump’s Loss in the 2020 Election. Now She’ll Help Oversee U.S. Election Security.

Heather Honey has been appointed to a senior position in the Department of Homeland Security. State election officials and voting experts are concerned.

www.propublica.org

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Ankit Panda @nktpnd.bsky.social · 2d

Great work here by @colinzwirko.bsky.social: All the weapons on display at North Korea’s 2025 arms expo www.nknews.org/pro/all-the-...

All the weapons on display at North Korea’s 2025 arms expo | NK PRO

North Korea has revealed a range of new weapons developments at an arms expo ongoing this week in Pyongyang, according to NK Pro analysis of state media imagery, including nuclear missiles and aerial ...

www.nknews.org

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Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · 3d

In case you’re wondering how grassroots Republican activists in Oregon are metabolizing what’s happening in the state. This person is a coordinator for two long running conservative organizations in the state: The Gathering of the Eagles and the Abigail Adams project.

Oregon Republican League
... X
Bleiler Donna • 7h • G
Trump is preparing to go after Antifa, waiting for them to make a move. Antifa is preparing for riots in major cities. Since Portland is their headquarters, it seems essential that the National Guard would be in Oregon.
Governor Kotek is in panic mode releasing news every day on her opposition. Portland Police are working with Antifa to criminalize federal agents. "Out in Oregon, the Governor, the mayor and police are all part of Antifa." Shan Davis explains, "Once you understand that Portland police is Antifa, everything else it does and refuses to do suddenly makes sense." If they are part of Antifa, they are part of the insurrection.
Antifa has been hired to create a civil war. Kotek has been telling people to stay calm, all the while she is still promoting Antifa to start a civil war.
[https://rumble.com/embed/v6xoc3g/?
pub=50601&start=2506](https://rumble.com/embed/ v6xoc3g/?pub=50601&start=2506)
2X22 Report Political • Geopolitical
rumble.com
Ep 3745b - [DS] Pushing A Hybrid War, Trump Is Using The Shutdown To Defund The [DS], Timing,...
115
16 comments 25 shares

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Jennifer Williams @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social · 3d

For obvious news reasons - Burnham, terrorism - I’ve not written about the reform councils elsewhere for a few weeks. But the general vibe is “we can’t rule out CT rises”.

The narrative, ie blame govt, is therefore already being established.

It’s true (central govt £ DOES dictate this), but 1/

David Henig @davidheniguk.bsky.social · 3d

Another day through the looking glass with UK politics starts with Reform finding out strangely enough that local government isn't spending all (or indeed virtually any) money on woke initiatives they can easily cut. www.ft.com/content/277c...

Reform likely to raise Kent council tax after cost-cutting drive falters

Nigel Farage’s party promised to revive local authority finances by slashing wasteful spending

www.ft.com

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Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 3d

OK, let's take this seriously. I had an odd half an hour and via Apple Books had a quick look at the three claims I knew most about - two re the post-Brexit bilateral preferential trade agreements replicated from the EU versions and one about cheaper bananas. All are wrong or wildly implausible. 1/n

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Katja Bego @katjabego.bsky.social · 5d

Macron: “We’ve been guilty of handing over our public democratic space to social networks owned by big American and Chinese firms whose interests are not in the survival and the functioning of our democracy."

I'm quite hopeful that French-German leadership on tech sovereignty can achieve something.

Europe’s democracies are in danger, warn Merz and Macron

Threats dwarf anything seen since the Cold War, says German chancellor.

politico.eu

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Brian Finucane @bcfinucane.bsky.social · 4d

Authoritarian theater

Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 4d

None of it was in pursuit of justice, but all of it was in pursuit of social media videos.

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Giles Wilkes @gilesyb.bsky.social · 4d

I don't think the country is more divided. A naive take but in like BakeOff there's no fuss about the diversity on show. Who made a fuss about the new Archbishop of Canterbury? It's the online right that's lost its mind IMHO, and the internet adding volume to racism that was always there. 4/

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Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 4d

A lot of parties are acting as if the election is tomorrow as opposed to likely 2029 after which either Trump is out of office, or more concerningly, still in office.

Robert Hutton @roberthutton.co.uk · 4d

This is to me the most baffling aspect. Who would place a bet that the next three years won't feature some terrible horror in the US from the outfit that Badenoch and Jenrick specifically say they want to copy? bsky.app/profile/smka...

smkali.bsky.social @smkali.bsky.social · 4d

The ICE raids aren’t popular even in America. Why do they think people want it here?

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ali alkhatib @ali-alkhatib.com · 4d

at my most charitable, i have said that tech people believe that they can do a kind of currency exchange of fundamentally social problems into technical puzzles, and that belief motivates and underwrites all sorts of elaborate arbitrages that obscure basically human dilemmas as "technical" details

Yvonne Lam @yvonnezlam.bsky.social · 4d

It's core to the entire tech project to believe that technical solutions will fix social problems.

Dr. Johnathan Flowers, Blade Wielding Bisexual (Lordean arc) @shengokai.blacksky.app · 4d

This. Absolutely this. They believed their technical solution would solve a social problem. It’s the same ideology that drives Mastodon albeit repackaged in a less “open source” centric shell.

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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 4d

‘The average man travelled 8,245 miles in 2002 and 6,549 miles in 2024—a drop of 21%. Almost the entire fall was caused by a decline in driving.’ Such an interesting piece
economist.com/britain/2025...

British men are driving less, and a culture is vanishing

Farewell to the road warriors

economist.com

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Jeff (Gutenberg Parenthesis) Jarvis @jeffjarvis.bsky.social · 4d

Gilbert Seldes, The Great Audience, 1950, on mass media:

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General Boles @generalboles.bsky.social · 5d

In the mid 90s I had a terrible night out at The Hacienda which by then was a shadow of its former self & I got the shit kicked out of me for making a joke about a lime green Ford Cortina parked outside the club.

I used to think nothing could be as bad as that night until I was emailed this 👇

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Zoë Crowther @zoecrowther.bsky.social · 5d

Oh my god.

Have I Got News For You just referred to this completely false claim as a fact!!

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