John Light

@johnalight.bsky.social

34802 Followers 1533 Following

I’m an editor at TPM. signal: johnalight.99 email: johnalight@protonmail.com

A Latina woman clutching a folder full of papers who had somehow ended up in the courtroom desperately tried to show the clerk her ID and case information on her phone; the clerk waved her away, refusing to talk to her. She sat, mute, seemingly unsure what to do. When the clerk reached another couple without a lawyer and asked if they had an attorney, they gestured at paperwork while speaking Russian. A lawyer sitting next to them, not theirs, who happened to speak Russian conferred with them; he reported that they filed a motion to change the venue because their lawyer is in Chicago. Only after that did the clerk tell them they could leave. “What a fucking shitshow,” a different lawyer exclaimed aloud.
The Constitution, the series asserts, was predicated on Biblical morality. “If we live by virtues, if we follow the laws going back to the time of Moses, our Constitution can hold strong,” the narrator of “The U.S. Constitution” comic tells us. This narrator guides us through the entire text, article by article, and he and his assistants tell us, in no uncertain terms, that: God was displeased by the three-fifths compromise on how enslaved people would be counted in the distribution of U.S. House seats; that Clarence Thomas was “smeared by rumors and mudslinging” in his 1991 Senate confirmation hearings; that the Electoral College should be preserved to force candidates “to care about the needs of small states”; that court packing is bad and “will lead to chaos”; that Originalism is good because Justice Antonin Scalia said so; that Roe v Wade was rightly overturned because it “created law, it didn’t interpret law”; that the proposed Bill of Rights being whittled down from 17 to 10 amendments at the Constitutional Convention made it “like our 10 Commandments”; that there should be no wall keeping religion out of public life or preventing the government from supporting religions; that regulating hate speech or internet propaganda is bad but regulating spending on political ads is a grave violation of the First Amendment; that the personal right to carry firearms bestowed by a 2008 Supreme Court decision is good because “home isn’t the only place you encounter criminals”; that it’s unclear if the 14th Amendment applies to children born to people who are in the country illegally (it is); that the 2023 Supreme Court decision ending affirmative action was good because it “stopped preferential treatment given to people of certain races” (rather than trying to correct for centuries of affirmative action for white people); and, once again, that the Constitution is a miracle.
A New York Times article with many TKs.
The current Mesa County clerk and recorder Bobbie Gross, in an earlier interview with TPM, explained that the county is still reeling from Peters’ crimes and warned that early release from her sentence would only reignite the county’s election conspiracy environment. “If she is released, I believe that it could spark some discontent in the nation, not just Mesa County, but Colorado and other places,” she said.
One case that sparked tension involved cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun, a major backer of the Trump ​family's World Liberty Financial venture, and another involved Tesla boss Elon Musk, a big donor to Trump's campaign who briefly served as the president's special adviser, the two people said.
Trump Truth Social post: "This is the gunman’s gun, loaded (with two additional full magazines!), and ready to go – What is that all about? Where are the local Police? Why weren’t they allowed to protect ICE Officers? The Mayor and the Governor called them off? It is stated that many of these Police were not allowed to do their job, that ICE had to protect themselves — Not an easy thing to do! Why does Ilhan Omar have $34 Million Dollars in her account? And where are the Tens of Billions of Dollars that have been stolen from the once Great State of Minnesota? We are there because of massive Monetary Fraud, with Billions of Dollars missing, and Illegal Criminals that were allowed to infiltrate the State through the Democrats’ Open Border Policy. We want the money back, and we want it back, NOW. Those Fraudsters who stole the money are going to jail, where they belong! This is no different than a really big Bank Robbery. Much of what you’re witnessing is a COVER UP for this Theft and Fraud. The Mayor and the Governor are inciting Insurrection, with their pompous, dangerous, and arrogant rhetoric! Instead, these sanctimonious political fools should be looking for the Billions of Dollars that has been stolen from the people of Minnesota, and the United States of America. LET OUR ICE PATRIOTS DO THEIR JOB! 12,000 Illegal Alien Criminals, many of them violent, have been arrested and taken out of Minnesota. If they were still there, you would see something far worse than you are witnessing today!"
Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY) was mad. It was Dec. 8 and she was inside 26 Federal Plaza with Goldman and Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY). The congressional delegation was on the building’s fifth floor, which advocates say has played host to the majority of detentions in recent weeks, as immigrants are required to show up there for routine checkins. It’s a hard claim to verify; advocates, attorneys, and credentialed reporters have been barred from observing the activity on the floor. Now, the members of Congress were being shut out too. Velázquez fumed after she was turned away following a tense standoff that lasted several minutes. “I stayed there listening to some bullshit,” Velázquez said with a wave of her hand as she stormed off to the elevators. Guards from Paragon Systems, a private contractor that provides security at federal buildings around the country, had initially stopped the lawmakers at the elevators and prevented them from proceeding onto the floor. After they called in a DHS commander, the congressional delegation was taken down the hall, out of sight of their staff and of TPM. They returned after a short — and apparently unsatisfactory — exchange.
An image showing TPM has 2,435 new members, and a goal of 2,500.
An "adviser to Pete Hegseth" calls a TPM reporter a "jackass" after an inquiry about his tattoos.