Public Enlightenment
LightNews LightNews
banner
publicenlightenment.com
Public Enlightenment
@publicenlightenment.com
1.1K followers 140 following 510 posts
The context we need to understand the news.

Pin my Lists to get democracy-biased news in minutes!

https://linktr.ee/public_enlightenment

publicenlightenment.com
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
publicenlightenment.com
Public Enlightenment @publicenlightenment.com · Mar 19
Best video thumbnail ever? Only have 20 minutes to check in on the news? Public Enlightenment's Bluesky Lists have you covered. Pin them to your feed and get all the context you need to understand the news.
Use Public Enlightenment’s lists to quickly gather pro-democracy context on the news. Easy, breezy, beautiful…publicenlightenment.com #democracy #mediadiet #medialiteracy #journalism
TikTok video by public_enlightenment
www.tiktok.com
Reposted by Public Enlightenment
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
The Trump administration State Department is taking money that's supposed to be used for helping vulnerable refugees around the world and using it to bribe corrupt governments into taking people that ICE can't deport to their home countries.
November 11, 2025 at 1:09 AM
Reposted by Public Enlightenment
newsjennifer.bsky.social
Read every word & share with everyone you know. This is real life here in Chicago. Americans need to know this grotesque reality & stand with us.
bgrueskin.bsky.social Bill Grueskin @bgrueskin.bsky.social · 1d
Kyle Kingsbury is not a journalist. He is not an op-ed writer.

He is a computer safety researcher.

And he has written one of the most compelling, comprehensive accounts of the ongoing hell in Chicago that you could possibly imagine.

In under 1600 words.

aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...
I Want You to Understand Chicago Politics Chicago 2025-11-08 I want you to understand what it is like to live in Chicago during this time. Every day my phone buzzes. It is a neighborhood group: four people were kidnapped at the corner drugstore. A friend a mile away sends a Slack message: she was at the scene when masked men assaulted and abducted two people on the street. A plumber working on my pipes is distraught, and I find out that two of his employees were kidnapped that morning. A week later it happens again. An email arrives. Agents with guns have chased a teacher into the school where she works. They did not have a warrant. They dragged her away, ignoring her and her colleagues’ pleas to show proof of her documentation. That evening I stand a few feet from the parents of Rayito de Sol and listen to them describe, with anguish, how good Ms. Diana was to their children. What it is like to have strangers with guns traumatize your kids. For a teacher to hide a three-year-old child for fear they might be killed. How their relatives will no longer leave the house. I hear the pain and fury in their voices, and I wonder who will be next. Understand what it is to pray in Chicago. On September 19th, Reverend David Black, lead pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, was praying outside the ICE detention center in Broadview when a DHS agent shot him in the head with pepper balls. Pepper balls are never supposed to be fired at the head because they can seriously injure, or even kill. “We could hear them laughing as they were shooting us from the roof,” Black recalled. He is not the only member of the clergy ICE has assaulted. Methodist pastor Hannah Kardon was violently arrested on October 17th, and Baptist pastor Michael Woolf was shot with pepper balls on November 1st. Understand what it is to sleep in Chicago. On the night of September 30th, federal agents rappelled from a Black Hawk helicopter to execute a raid on an apartment building on the South Sho…
November 10, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Reposted by Public Enlightenment
premthakker.bsky.social
Here are the at least 6 House Democrats, 3 Democratic-aligned organizations, and 4 Democratic Senate candidates calling for Chuck Schumer to resign as leader:
Here are the at least 6 House Democrats, 3 Democratic-aligned organizations, and 4 Democratic Senate candidates calling for Chuck Schumer to resign as leader:
November 11, 2025 at 1:20 AM
Reposted by Public Enlightenment
cnn.com
Grocery prices. Gas prices. Prescription drug prices. Overall prices. Over just three days, Trump made false claims about all of them. | Fact check
Fact check: Trump’s lying spree about inflation
www.cnn.com
November 11, 2025 at 12:32 AM
Reposted by Public Enlightenment
mediaanddemocracy.bsky.social
Media ownership is agenda- and narrative-making power.
A worthwhile read by @publicenlightenment.com

The world's perspective of @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social governance will be driven by the unseen power of media owners and those who shape understanding.
www.publicenlightenment.com/p/mamdanis-r...
Mamdani's Real Fight Won't Be In Albany, It'll Be In Your Newsfeed
Who controls your opinion of politics? What about your MAGA loved ones?
www.publicenlightenment.com
November 10, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Reposted by Public Enlightenment
karlbode.com
I love the kayfabe pantomime that is most U.S. business journalism. You're basically writing safe fan fiction for MBA bros with all the rough edges sanded off so ownership and nobody in power gets upset
November 10, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Reposted by Public Enlightenment
jesseltaylor.bsky.social
this is like someone at ESPN resigning because they edited clips to suggest Phil Jackson ran the triangle offense
November 10, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Reposted by Public Enlightenment
marisakabas.bsky.social
I received this email about Democrats caving to end the shutdown from one of the SNAP recipients I spoke to:
I'm sorry, I know this is not your problem, but I just felt like screaming into a void seeing that now Dems may cave and end the shutdown without getting anything they were supposedly fighting for. We've been put through hell for weeks, constantly having our ability to simply feed ourselves dangled in front of our faces, our survival used as a bargaining chip, told it was for a reason. Our suffering would prevent even more suffering and that it would be temporary and worth it to save healthcare for millions. And now it's all for nothing. They stood for nothing. They caused suffering for no reason. They'll cause even more suffering for no reason. It wasn't 40 million people starving that made them cave. They were willing to put up with that. But the threat of holiday traveling being disrupted seems to be the thing to push them to give in. They have failed everyone. I'm so angry.
November 10, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Reposted by Public Enlightenment
rickperlstein.bsky.social
Hate to sound like a broken record, but I'm not sure people outside Chicago are really getting their minds around what's happening here. Every decent human needs to watch this.

substack.com/@danielbiss/...
Daniel Biss talks with detained ICE protestor Jennifer Moriarty
In this recording from our live conversation, I spoke with Evanston resident Jennifer Moriarty, who was "grabbed by the neck" and then detained while peacefully protesting against ICE.
substack.com
November 8, 2025 at 4:43 PM
publicenlightenment.com
youtube.com/shorts/XRDD5...
Does Trump Control CNN’s Coverage? Mark Thompson’s White House Meeting Explained
YouTube video by Public Enlightenment
youtube.com
November 8, 2025 at 6:50 PM
publicenlightenment.com
The same billionaire class that funds the politicians and pundits shaping your opinions runs the apps and networks that define him. Every meme, every headline is built to make him look like a failure. If you want reality, I’ve curated pro-democracy, fact-based outlets on Bluesky.
Billionaires lost to Mamdani at the polls—but they still own your newsfeed. The same class that funds the politicians and pundits shaping your opinions runs the apps and networks that define his image...
TikTok video by public_enlightenment
www.tiktok.com
November 7, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Reposted by Public Enlightenment
lollardfish.bsky.social
AI is killing people. We don't have to let companies hawking these products embed them in everything. If you work at a college, your students are already struggling with mental health, and you want to give them this?

www.startribune.com/adam-raine-c...
November 7, 2025 at 1:50 AM
Reposted by Public Enlightenment
kbeninato.bsky.social
Guardian: Masked, heavily armed federal immigration agents arrested a US citizen in the parking lot of a Los Angeles Home Depot store, then entered his car and drove away with his toddler, who is also a US citizen, in the backseat.
Armed US immigration agents drive off with toddler after arrest of father
‘Devastated’ family demands answers after two-year-old driven by armed agents from LA Home Depot parking lot
www.theguardian.com
November 6, 2025 at 5:27 AM
Reposted by Public Enlightenment
vermontgmg.bsky.social
The USG and everyone involved should be horribly embarrassed for participating in this absurd prosecution. But in the end: Justice was … served.
November 6, 2025 at 8:39 PM
Reposted by Public Enlightenment
atrupar.com
incredible photo that's definitely worth at least 1,000 words from Andrew Harnik of Getty
November 6, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Reposted by Public Enlightenment
nicholasgrossman.bsky.social
Of course the president can’t subvert the Constitution by lying that there’s an emergency. If lying that there’s an emergency is a magic loophole granting the executive branch the powers of Congress, there’s no point to Article I.

The fact that this is even a question is a sign of degradation.
November 6, 2025 at 3:30 AM
Reposted by Public Enlightenment
atrupar.com
Scalise: "They're beating their chest because Virginia elected a Democrat governor. What did you think was gonna happen? That's no victory" (The current governor of Virginia is a Republican)
November 6, 2025 at 2:58 PM
publicenlightenment.com
I’ve just started producing regular briefs just like the right wing thinks tanks have done for decades. Share them widely to shift society towards supporting democracy, just as the right wing think tanks shifted society towards fascism.

Featured: @pkrugman.bsky.social @sawyerhackett.bsky.social
The People's Think Tank: Government Shut Down
To save our democracy we, the people, must flood the zone with facts.
open.substack.com
November 6, 2025 at 2:52 PM
Reposted by Public Enlightenment
atrupar.com
Trump: "I've secured commitments over $18 trillion. We're gonna have $21 trillion in one year." (Trump's fake numbers get bigger even within a single statement!)
November 5, 2025 at 6:51 PM
publicenlightenment.com
www.publicenlightenment.com/p/the-people...
The People’s Think Tank: Taking back America for the people
To save our democracy we must flood the zone with facts. Starting this week I’ll produce briefs that contextualize the issues. Your job is to share these resources as widely as possible.
www.publicenlightenment.com
November 5, 2025 at 6:50 PM
Reposted by Public Enlightenment
swin24.bsky.social
Hm
atrupar.com Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 5d
Trump: "They're gonna make DC a state and they're gonna make Puerto Rico a state. So now they pick up two states, four senators. They're gonna pick up electoral votes. It's gonna be a very, very bad situation. Now, if we do what I'm saying, they'll most likely never obtain power."
November 5, 2025 at 3:44 PM
Reposted by Public Enlightenment
popular.info
Last week, the FCC voted to allow prison telecommunication companies to charge incarcerated people up to 83% more for phone calls.

Before the 2024 rate caps were implemented, inmates reported having to choose between paying for calls or other essential goods, like hygiene products and shoes.
Inmates will pay up to 83% more for phone calls, thanks to new FCC rule
Last week, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to allow prison telecommunication companies to charge incarcerated people up to 83% more for phone calls.
popular.info
November 4, 2025 at 1:04 AM
Reposted by Public Enlightenment
wired.com
A major breach of the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department reveals, for the first time, a list of alleged officer misconduct including dishonesty, sexual harassment, excessive force, and false arrest. www.wired.com/story/hack-e...
Hack Exposes Kansas City’s Secret Police Misconduct List
A major breach of the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department reveals, for the first time, a list of alleged officer misconduct including dishonesty, sexual harassment, excessive force, and false arrest.
www.wired.com
November 3, 2025 at 10:03 AM
Reposted by Public Enlightenment
propublica.org
NEW: A pastor was pulled over for looking lost. A 72-year-old was marched out in his bathrobe due to mistaken identity.

Memphis’ mayor welcomed the federal law enforcement surge, but some residents say they feel targeted just going about their lives.
“I Don’t Feel Safe”: Black Memphis Residents Report Harassment by Trump’s Police Task Force
A pastor was pulled over for looking lost. A 72-year-old was marched out in his bathrobe due to mistaken identity. Memphis’ mayor welcomed the federal law enforcement surge, but some residents say they feel targeted just going about their lives.
www.propublica.org
November 3, 2025 at 1:00 PM