Lumina
@lumina54.bsky.social
Political sociologist by training (AoS: ethnic conflict, soc mvmts, democratization), pol sci (IR) data analyst for a living, digital organizer working to elect Democrats. Here to read news & gain insights, w/ just occasional random posts. Repost ≠ endorse
The world is moving on... It always does. "Overseas visitors to the US are on track to drop by almost two million year-on-year, with even the FIFA Men’s World Cup failing to arrest the decline in tourism." www.semafor.com/article/09/2...
Decline in tourism hits US economy
Overseas visitors to the US are on track to drop by almost two million year-on-year.
semafor.com
Holy shit, this ad! I cannot imagine the impetus for pardoning this guy. But I’m not even sure it matters. Kind of along the lines of that Roger Marshall ad. If you’re explaining you’re losing.
Polling USA@usapolling.bsky.social · 2d agoJesus Christ dude
Farmers who were promised “America First” policies say that $6 diesel — an all-time high — is “eating everyone’s bottom line” as Trump’s ongoing war with Iran stretches toward peak harvest season.
Local TV news stations across the nation tell story of US farmers struggling to adapt to high diesel prices
mediamatters.org
2 things, in ascending order of importance: 1) Polls are Possibility but they don't vote; don't stop working. 2) El-Sayed has Massive support in a mid-west rust-belt state while vocally supporting transgender kids & adults/directly Dismissing claims that trans people are "dangerous." Learn from that
Dean Obeidallah@deanobeidallah.bsky.social · last wk.NEW poll. Abdul El-Sayed up by SEVEN points! Keep working Michigan to make this reality! www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...
NOW: Just arrived at the intersection of Research Blvd and Anderson Lane—near where ICE shot & wounded 29-yr-old Wilber Rafael Garces Perez earlier today. Between 300-500 people still holding intersection here. ICE is reportedly not letting Garces Perez’s family access him at the hospital.
If you're a Dem who thinks you'll gain something by going anti-trans, look at Gallup's "most important problem" and Fox News' "most important issue" polling and see where trans issues rank. Whoever told you going anti-trans is a savvy or necessary move spends too much time on X and should be fired.
It really is striking how many authoritarian states have ended up in this exact same place, where the leader seizes control of scientific inquiry. Lysenkoism in the Soviet Union, Aryan Physics in the Third Reich, Great Leap Forward (also related to Lysenko) in China.
Catherine Rampell@crampell.bsky.social · 2w agoLysenkoism lives. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/20/s...
Combatants are hunting civilians from the sky with small drones more than ever before - and the international community isn’t doing enough to stop it. My latest on the ways we can protect civilians from drones, written with Nathaniel Raymond of @hrl-yalesph.bsky.social :
The Laws of War Must Change for the Drone Age
Hunting civilians from the sky is growing disturbingly common.
foreignpolicy.com
The CNN investigation concludes that the devastation that was visited on 16 US military installations in the Gulf region was clearly possible because of Russian missile technology and guidance data supplied to Iran. That's the same folks who paid for Trump Jr's wedding party, by the way.
As expected, the Senate failed to force the start of debate on the CLARITY Act, a bill designed to set up a regulatory framework on cryptocurrency. Democrats said the bill did not do enough about ethics issues / crypto / government officials (read: Trump). 60 votes were needed to advance.
Genuinely an insane paragraph from Sam Alito. “Voter fraud is real and scary and we have to stop it, so the fact that implementing Trump’s mail ballot rule will disenfranchise millions is legally irrelevant.” Brain melted. A right-wing podcaster in a robe. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...
Good read. What truly baffles me seeing this "AI-designed-printed-in-the-lab-bioweapon will kill us all" guff is the fact that we have *the* biggest, out-of-control, Gain-of-Function experiment, in BSL-0, already running rampant in the US. In cattle 🐮. Yet, 🦗. www.theatlantic.com/health/2026/...
The AI Pandemic Isn’t On Its Way
Yet plenty of others might be, thanks to evolution.
theatlantic.com
You cannot make this stuff up. The GOP’s Dallas midterm convention put Ross Ulbricht—the Silk Road founder convicted on 7 federal counts, including narcotics trafficking and money laundering—on stage. Trump pardoned him in 2025. TWO LIFE SENTENCES. And THIS is who they’re putting on a pedestal?
Last month, the Pentagon fired the publisher and editor-in-chief of Stars and Stripes. Two opposite headlines this morning show the results were swift.
Seriously if any president ever did this besides him he would be gone in 5 seconds. Yet it won't be above the fold every day for the next month and it won't be the leading story on cable news every day until the midterms even though it should be.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 3w ago"Please right your right hand. I pledge to the greatest president in history that loves us so much he can't even breathe" -- in extremely culty scene, Trump has his supporters pledge to him that they will vote, then tells them they will "go to hell" if they don't Here's the full sequence:
Dean: He spent billions of your tax dollars wrecking the White House and building monuments to himself. He will be remembered for rot and rubble
Silicon Valley's effort to destroy democracy is the biggest story of our political moment. Beware of those who have nothing to say about it.
At @status.news this weekend I got a word in about the "media frenzy" surrounding Hasan Piker. www.status.news/p/hasan-pike...
We are in the “you can’t learn that anymore” stage of fascism, for anyone still keeping track.
Houston Chronicle@houstonchronicle.com · 4w agoThe Texas A&M University System Board of Regents cut more than 200 courses from the core curriculum across 11 universities on Thursday, in response to a state law requiring all general education classes to be “foundational and fundamental.” bit.ly/4iQNt0K
For Trump, colleges and universities are the enemy for a fairly obvious reason: no one with a college education votes for him. The denial of international visas aims to suck up an essential revenue stream for universities and to put their continuation in doubt. That's the object of this exercise.
The Nigel Farage and Reform foreign donations scandal excluded from all but one national newspaper front page this morning. No sign of it at all on the front pages of the two papers which splashed the polls secretly funded by a Reform donor earlier this year
Max Miller,a domestic abuser of his wife and child, gets NRCC’s help on the airwaves Really? www.politico.com/live-updates...
Max Miller gets NRCC’s help on the airwaves
The Ohio Republican facing allegations of domestic abuse is not on a list of national GOP priority candidates.
politico.com
I didn't vote for this cosplay working-class dude in the primary for a reason -- he showed exactly who he was back then. Consider 2028 PASen to be a must-flip race because it is effectively a flip. Act accordingly.
The Wall Street Journal@wsj.com · 4w agoBehind closed doors, John Fetterman dodges constituents, alienates fellow Democrats and shows little interest in the work of a senator.
turns out the guy who looked, talked and dressed like he didn’t give a shit about the job…doesn’t give a shit about the job
The Wall Street Journal@wsj.com · 4w agoBehind closed doors, John Fetterman dodges constituents, alienates fellow Democrats and shows little interest in the work of a senator.
Egregious omission by NYT: Its report on Vance-AES feud quotes AES's barb about Usha and Papaw without including the original Vance quote that AES was responding to. That makes it look like AES brought up Usha out of the blue and drains his quote of its real meaning: newrepublic.com/article/2149...
Scoop: The U.S. State Department has drafted guidance requiring parents applying for passports for their children to provide proof of their own citizenship or immigration status as part of President Trump's latest effort to limit birthright citizenship, @kristinacooke.bsky.social and I report.
EXCLUSIVE: Trump birthright curbs may prompt US passport checks on parents
The U.S. State Department has proposed requiring parents applying for passports for their children to provide proof of their own citizenship or immigration status as part of President Donald Trump's ...
reuters.com
Can't get numb to this: it's frightening how Trump et al have normalized lawless behavior by govt officials. US govt cruelty to immigrants is not remotely new, but people like Rubio, the nation's top diplomat, moved the Overton window on accepting scandalous outrages. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/30/w...
Deportees Sent to Liberia Recount Harrowing Details of U.S. Expulsion and Treatment by ICE
Ten deportees said they experienced or witnessed what they called abusive or violent treatment by ICE. They spent months in detention, they said, before being sent to nations where they had no ties.
nytimes.com
