Thomas Willson
LightNews LightNews
Thomas Willson
@thomasewillson.com
79 followers 140 following 8 posts
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Thomas Willson
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
The Trump admin has made us a thoroughly dishonorable nation.
On board was a 24-year-old Afghan whose father, brother and sister worked alongside U.S. forces, said AfghanEvac, a U.S.-based group that assists Afghan allies, the American Civil Liberties Union and a person familiar with the operation who spoke on condition of anonymity. Deporting relatives of Afghans who aided the U.S. military during its 20-year campaign in Afghanistan breaks a longstanding American commitment to protect wartime allies. Thousands of Afghans fled with their families after the Taliban overthrew the U.S.-backed government in Kabul five years ago.
August 29, 2026 at 5:11 PM
Reposted by Thomas Willson
asharangappa.bsky.social
This story is indeed insane. They literally *discounted his correct answers* (on questions about the Constitution) so that a Trump supporting girl who wants to go to Hillsdale College could win $25K and be televised meeting Trump. So. Gross.
charlotteclymer.bsky.social Charlotte Clymer @charlotteclymer.bsky.social · Jul 22
This story is crazy.

It would appear Trump admin officials rigged their nationally televised high school civics contest to keep a young man from a Sikh family out of the finalists.

www.notus.org/national/ame...
Suspicion and Doubt at the National Civics Contest
America’s finest young scholars competed to mark their country's birthday. It led to a disputed finish in the age of mistrust.
www.notus.org
July 22, 2026 at 2:49 PM
Reposted by Thomas Willson
abbeyarletto.bsky.social
When reality surpasses fiction!

Top: fictional forecast for August 2050, broadcast by French TV in 2014 to warn about the consequences of global warming.

Bottom: Real French forecast for yesterday, June 22, 2026.
June 23, 2026 at 7:23 PM
Reposted by Thomas Willson
sfgate.com
The  alleged kidnapping attempt happened in broad daylight on Friday.
Bay Area police seek distinctive-looking suspect in kidnap attempt
The  alleged kidnapping attempt happened in broad daylight on Friday.
bit.ly
June 21, 2026 at 4:30 PM
Reposted by Thomas Willson
bhgreeley.bsky.social
Jesus Christ, I have a kid in this program and it's his whole life, we're just tearing up massive chunks of America, throwing it in a pile, and lighting it all on fire
juliametraux.bsky.social Julia Métraux @juliametraux.bsky.social · Jun 16
In bad news, with disability education oversight being moved to the Department of Health and Human Services from the Department of Education, that means Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will have power over disability policy positions. New from me at @motherjones.com www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
RFK Jr. will oversee disability education policy
The dismantling of the Department of Education continues apace.
www.motherjones.com
June 17, 2026 at 2:10 AM
Reposted by Thomas Willson
radleybalko.bsky.social
Another deported U.S. citizen.

www.the-independent.com/news/world/a...
DHS deported a US citizen to Mexico after threatening him with prison time: report
A man deported to Mexico has claimed that officers not only refused to see his documents but accused him of fraud
www.the-independent.com
April 11, 2026 at 6:41 PM
Reposted by Thomas Willson
timofnewbury.bsky.social
'She has a message for other tourists considering a trip to America: “Don’t go – not with Trump in charge. It’s totally out of control over there. There’s no accountability. They don’t seem to need a reason for detaining you.”'
#ICE
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
‘Don’t go to the US – not with Trump in charge’: the UK tourist with a valid visa detained by ICE for six weeks
Karen Newton was in America on the trip of a lifetime when she was shackled, transported and held for weeks on end. With tourism to the US under increasing strain, she says, ‘If it can happen to me, i...
www.theguardian.com
February 21, 2026 at 12:47 PM
Reposted by Thomas Willson
nytimes.com
Breaking News: The EPA is allowing coal-burning power plants to release more heavy metals like mercury, a powerful neurotoxin linked to brain damage.
E.P.A. Weakens Limits on Mercury From Coal Plants
The move appeared to undercut the Make America Healthy Again movement led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a onetime campaigner against mercury pollution.
nyti.ms
February 20, 2026 at 5:45 PM
Reposted by Thomas Willson
jbendery.bsky.social
NEW: The Trump admin certainly put on a show last week about changing tactics in Minnesota after ICE agents killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old VA nurse.

Trump even suggested it's time for "a softer touch."

Except residents say nothing has changed. At all. www.huffpost.com/entry/ice-mi...
Trump Using A ‘Softer Touch’ With ICE In Minnesota? Residents Say Don’t Be Fooled.
Two weeks after Alex Pretti’s killing, federal agents have shown no signs of backing down. The resistance definitely hasn't.
www.huffpost.com
February 8, 2026 at 4:41 PM
Reposted by Thomas Willson
scavendish.bsky.social
Metry and her husband of 4 years go to DHS to get their I-130 in motion. "Good news" a DHS employee told them, the form to start her naturalization was approved.

DHS employee asks the husband to follow him through a secure door. When it locks behind him, ICE detains his wife to deport her.
nashvillebanner.bsky.social Nashville Banner @nashvillebanner.bsky.social · Feb 6
EXCLUSIVE: Terez Metry was 13 when her family fled to Tennessee from Egypt in 2011. Then, they left her behind. She only recently discovered she had an order of removal from 2011. But she was following the legal path to citizenship. On Monday, at a routine DHS meeting, Metry was detained.
Immigration process turns sour for an Antioch woman - Nashville Banner
Terez Metry, a dental assistant in Middle Tennessee with no criminal history, was detained by ICE during an interview as she followed legal steps toward citizenship.
nashvillebanner.com
February 6, 2026 at 10:00 PM
Reposted by Thomas Willson
weatherwest.bsky.social
This video arose from a very brief written op-ed piece that was published today, in even more succinct edited form, in Semafor (link below). But I'm including the full, unedited version of my original thoughts here in the attached image. www.semafor.com/arti...
Text in image begins: In response to: Should the world shift away from curbing emissions in the fight against climate change? (by Daniel Swain, Climate Scientist, University of California) The notion that the world should shift away from curbing climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions is extraordinarily divorced from the basic facts of the present moment. The last three years have been the warmest in recorded human history, and by a considerable margin—rather than slowing, as some have claimed, the pace of warming has likely increased over the past two decades. Indeed, the amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere is now at its highest level in 3 million years, and last year’s year-on-year increase in this globally important atmospheric pollutant was the largest ever observed. Once merely a projection regarding the future, increasingly extreme heatwaves and torrential downpours have become an observed reality, directly threatening human lives and economies...
November 14, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Reposted by Thomas Willson
darthbluesky.bsky.social
the portland chicken explains
October 10, 2025 at 1:39 AM
Reposted by Thomas Willson
donmoyn.bsky.social
The elimination of USAID is a moral atrocity and all involved made a choice to enable, and then lie about, ending the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in the world.
MAE SOT, Thailand (AP) - Mohammed Taher clutched the lifeless body of his 2-year-old son and wept. Ever since his family's food rations stopped arriving at their internment camp in Myanmar in April, the father had watched helplessly as his once-vibrant baby boy weakened, suffering from diarrhea and begging for food. On May 21, exactly two weeks after Taher's little boy died, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio sat before Congress and declared: "No one has died" because of his government's decision to gut its foreign aid program. Rubio also insisted: "No children are dying on my watch." That, Taher says, "is a lie."
October 8, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Reposted by Thomas Willson
brendannyhan.bsky.social
October 8, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Reposted by Thomas Willson
publichealthguy1.bsky.social
this should be a much bigger story
thexylom.com The Xylom @thexylom.com · Oct 2
BREAKING: Mario Guevara, the Atlanta-based Spanish-language journalist who was arrested covering an anti-Trump protest, has been transported to a Louisiana immigration facility, from where his family said he will be deported to El Salvador tomorrow at 11 a.m.

www.wabe.org/family-says-...
October 3, 2025 at 1:59 AM
Reposted by Thomas Willson
erininthemorning.com
Confederate statues are “history” but a rainbow crosswalk dedicated to victims of a mass shooting is “political.”
August 22, 2025 at 1:32 AM
Reposted by Thomas Willson
robinsonmeyer.bsky.social
if you’re wondering why it’s time to start wondering about electricity prices, may I recommend:

- my piece for @heatmap.news heatmap.news/politics/ele...

- @jessedjenkins.com‘s and my recent shift key episode heatmap.news/podcast/shif...
August 15, 2025 at 1:13 AM
Reposted by Thomas Willson
alistairkitchen.bsky.social
Hi everyone

I was denied entry, detained, and deported from the USA over the last 48 hours because of my reporting on the Columbia student protests

I arrived back in Melbourne hours ago and had my phone handed back to me upon landing
June 14, 2025 at 1:27 AM
Reposted by Thomas Willson
npr.org
A few days ago, President Trump issued an executive order seeking to block all federal funding to NPR, the latest in a series of threats to media organizations across the country.
Public media is under threat. Millions depend on the NPR Network every day. Silencing journalism is one way to silence truth and erode the power of the people. Donate now.
May 3, 2025 at 10:49 PM
Reposted by Thomas Willson
sanders.senate.gov
It has now been 30 days with NO humanitarian aid getting into Gaza.

No food, no water, no medicine, no fuel.

That is barbaric. The U.S. must end our complicity in these atrocities.
April 3, 2025 at 12:46 AM
Reposted by Thomas Willson
ronfilipkowski.bsky.social
Trump just imposed, by executive order, the single largest tax increase on consumers in American history.
April 2, 2025 at 10:17 PM
Reposted by Thomas Willson
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
Despite admitting to having illegally sent a guy to El Salvador by mistake, and even though the U.S. is paying El Salvador to indefinitely imprison him, the DOJ is arguing that, well, nothing to do, it's not in our hands anymore. The general tone of their response is "welp, sucks to be him."
But there is no jurisdiction in habeas. Plaintiffs admit—as they must—that the United States does not have custody over Abrego Garcia. They acknowledge that there may be “difficult questions of redressability” in this case, reflecting their recognition that Defendants do not have “the power to produce” Abrego Garcia from CECOT in El Salvador. Mem. Supp. TRO Mot. 2. But even more, they concede that Abrego Garcia is not in Defendants’ custody. Id. (asking the Court to order Defendants to “request that the government of El Salvador return Plaintiff to Defendants’ custody”). Despite their allegations of continued payment for Abrego Garcia’s detention, Plaintiffs do not argue that the United States can exercise its will over a foreign sovereign. The most they ask for is a court order that the United States entreat—or even cajole—a close ally in its fight against transnational cartels. This is not “custody” to which the great writ may run. This Court therefore lacks jurisdiction.
April 1, 2025 at 3:03 AM
Reposted by Thomas Willson
theonion.com
Democratic Leaders Stand Real Still In Hopes No One Notices Them
Democratic Leaders Stand Real Still In Hopes No One Notices Them
WASHINGTON—With the elected officials trying their hardest not to move a muscle, reports confirmed Monday that top Democratic leaders in Congress were standing real still in hopes that the American pe...
theonion.com
March 14, 2025 at 2:25 AM