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Laura Bassett

@lebassett.bsky.social
64K followers 993 following 4K posts

Freelance journalist. Formerly: EIC at Jezebel, columnist at The Cut and GQ, HuffPost politics reporter. Brooklyn via South Louisiana. I write a newsletter called Nightcap: www.laura-bassett.com

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Reposted by Laura Bassett
Kat Tenbarge @kattenbarge.bsky.social · 2h
A truly heinous man has doxxed the Cornell victim on X and the comments are predictably vile. Based on countless interviews I’ve done with survivors, the trauma they are subjected to for coming forward is oftentimes even worse than the initial trauma they experienced. There is no real justice system
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MeidasTouch @meidastouch.com · 10h
🚨 BREAKING: Texas Rep. Gina Hinojosa has filed an official request to inspect unredacted communications between Gov. Greg Abbott’s office and Elon Musk after roughly 1,400 pages released last year were heavily redacted as “intimate and embarrassing.”
Texas State Rep. Gina Hinojosa stands indoors wearing a burgundy blazer and dark top, with campaign signage bearing her name and the outline of Texas visible behind her.Official letter dated September 29, 2026, from Texas State Rep. Gina Hinojosa to Gov. Greg Abbott’s office requesting inspection of unredacted communications between Abbott’s office and Elon Musk and his companies. Hinojosa seeks records previously released with redactions for information deemed “embarrassing” or “intimate,” citing her legislative authority under the Texas Public Information Act.
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Laura Bassett @lebassett.bsky.social · 5h
And he got dunked on so hard that he deleted it
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Laura Bassett @lebassett.bsky.social · 9h
The Schmitt staffer just flashing the “text evidence” card for one second and then refusing to let Smith see it again because he knew he had royally fucked up is my favorite thing about this
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Laura Bassett @lebassett.bsky.social · 9h
Schmitt mixed up the Atlanta Hawks and the Iowa Hawkeyes lmaoooooo
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Laura Bassett @lebassett.bsky.social · 14h
Genuinely the worst campaign message I’ve ever seen
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Josh Chafetz @joshchafetz.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
The fact that OAN is reporting this … (a) damn!, and also (b) this sort of thing is very good for democracy because it prepares the most partisan Republicans to understand and (maybe) accept election results that go against them
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Jesse Hawken @jessehawken.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
When It happens it might be like this, unnoticed by anyone on live tv for a few minutes
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Andy @andyoregon.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
An uncomfortable but necessary read from the always topical @lebassett.bsky.social www.laura-bassett.com/p/protesting...
laura-bassett.com
Protesting violence at Cornell gets you arrested. Gang rape gets you an essay.
The district attorney is reopening a horrific campus rape case only after massive public outcry; otherwise, five of the seven men would’ve gotten off with a writing assignment.
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Arienne Childrey @ari4ohio.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Pay attention Dems. Gov Beshear won twice, in a deep red state, and never threw trans people under the bus. He led with compassion rather than the fear and cowardice we've seen from some of our Ohio candidates and party leadership.
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Emily Gorcenski @emily.gorcen.ski · 28/09/2026
Here’s the most incredible story you’ll read today. A small plane with four people aboard crashes in a field. Another pilot witnesses it. That pilot happens to be flying a bunch of skydivers. They offer to jump to assist, are given permission. The skydivers happen to be EMTs. Everyone survives.
wisn.com
Skydivers alert emergency crews, assist after plane crashes near East Troy airport
Four people were aboard the single-engine plane when it went down in a cornfield near Carvers School Road in East Troy at about 1:30 p.m.
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The Get More Smarter Podcast 🧠🏔️ @getmoresmarter.com · 28/09/2026
The President of the United States' entire social media feed is random pictures of him with the leader of the Chinese Communist Party and ads for the gas station heroin lobby.
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Moira Donegan @moiradonegan.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
You know when public attention can reverse a prosecutorial decision like this you almost get the sense that the decision to shrug it off in the first place was not based on an assessment of the quality of the evidence so much as an assessment of the seriousness of the crime.
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Roberto Rojas @robertorojas97.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
The Brazilian Portuguese commentary on that Tyler Loop field goal for the Ravens is exactly what everyone needs to hear right now
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Laura Bassett @lebassett.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
"They can self-regulate," Speaker Mike Johnson said of these people
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Laura Bassett @lebassett.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Framing concentration camps and street executions as a headache for some politicians ahead of the midterms is where we're at
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Joe Sudbay @joesudbay.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
A searing editorial from @pressherald.com: It’s Maine’s turn to be concerned about Susan Collins www.pressherald.com/2026/09/27/i...
pressherald.com
It’s Maine’s turn to be concerned about Susan Collins | Editorial
The senator's complacent response to open allegations of bribery sends voters a very clear and disrespectful message.
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Laura Bassett @lebassett.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
My boyfriend put on cologne for the first time since knowing my dog, and the dog tried to roll on him like he rolls on dead animals and puddles of piss 😂
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Laura Bassett @lebassett.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
World’s tiniest violin
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Carolyn Kellogg @paperhaus.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Huge props to the headline writers at The Guardian www.theguardian.com/world/2026/s...
theguardian.com
Alberta’s self-image as world’s only rat-free region shattered by discovery of rat
Province’s rat patrol called in to investigate as town of Bowden announces discovery of dead vermin
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Laura Bassett @lebassett.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I’m sure the mass voter roll purges will be applied evenly and without discrimination, right? Right?
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Democracy Docket @democracydocket.com · 25/09/2026
🚨 BREAKING: In a major loss for voters, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to allow the Trump administration to initiate voter roll purges using a flawed database involving Americans' private data. The ruling will disproportionately impact naturalized citizens who've been wrongly flagged in the system.
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Whitney Curry Wimbish @whitneycwimbish.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The youngest person his pager attack killed was 9-year-old Fatima Abdullah, who had just started 4th grade. The pager was on a table when it went off and she picked it up to take to her dad. It exploded in her face and reports said it covered the room in her blood. She wanted to learn English.
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David_j_roth @davidjroth.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
It's too depressing and obnoxious to write about, but virtually all of the doomy/horny AI hyperventilating is transparently displaced anxiety about our fucked climate and political situation. Even rich idiots know it's bad and being permitted to get worse. They're trying to write their own ending.
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Laura Bassett @lebassett.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Not an ideal person to be in charge of the food and drug administration
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Laura Bassett @lebassett.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Life comes at you fast
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Laura Bassett @lebassett.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Collins is the turd that won’t flush, as my mother would say
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Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Trump banned Politico from the White House because it ran “negative” stories from a leaker. And that leaker was JD Vance.
status.news
The Source Behind The Ban
The anonymous source behind one of the stories the White House cited to justify banning POLITICO was none other than Vice President JD Vance, Status has learned.
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G Elliott Morris @gelliottmorris.com · 24/09/2026
No president has ever gone into a midterm election as unpopular as Trump is today. Not even George W. Bush in 2006. Trump's net approval is twice as low as it was at this point in 2018. blog.fiftyplusone.news/p/no-preside...
blog.fiftyplusone.news
Democrats hit midterm high as Trump approval reaches new low
No president has gone into a midterm election this unpopular. Not even George W. Bush in 2006.
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Laura Bassett @lebassett.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Damn
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Brandon Friedman @brandonfriedman.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Texas is a voter suppression state, not a red state
votebeat.org
Tens of thousands of Texas voter registration applications likely ensnared in state error
Democrats are calling for investigations into why voter registration applications submitted via a DPS portal weren’t forwarded to counties.
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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 23/09/2026
Five cops in Indianapolis were just criminally charged with abusing Flock to spy on their ex-wives, their wives' ex-partners and women they met on duty. Audit was triggered by us at the @washingtonpost.com, the prosecutor said. From last month: wapo.st/4yfNHng
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Laura Bassett @lebassett.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
What’s the matter with Kansas
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Laura Bassett @lebassett.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Guillotine time
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Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Awful: Trump's Office of "Remigration" has just been exposed making sordid payments to authoritarian governments to take third-country deportees, leading to serious abuses. Dems tell me they will try to defund the agency if they win power. They should. 1/ New piece: newrepublic.com/article/2157...
newrepublic.com
Stephen Miller’s MAGA Terror Campaign Exposed by Damning New Leaks
Sordid revelations about the white-nationalist-themed Office of Remigration should galvanize Democrats: If they win power, they must try to shut it down.
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Laura Bassett @lebassett.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I don’t think journalists are obtaining that information while on pool duty
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hammancheez @hammancheez.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Andrew Cuomo, through tears : this is marxism
huffpost.com
Mamdani Delivers $131 Million Settlement For DoorDash Drivers
The Mamdani administration said the settlement is the largest labor enforcement action in the city’s history.
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Laura Bassett @lebassett.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Watching Reacher for the first time and it’s… pretty corny???
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Maris Kreizman @maris.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
LOL, the gotcha part in the second paragraph is truly hilarious. Who will think of the straight white rightwing men in the literary world? WHO? WHO?
Last week, the longlists for the National Book Awards were announced. Among the 20 authors in the fiction and nonfiction categories, nearly all are straight white males. Most are also on the political right, some even on the far right. Remarkably, mainstream media outlets haven’t reported this, perhaps because they don’t think it’s noteworthy. It’s as if we were living in 1956 rather than 2026.

If you’re scratching your head at this “news,” well, it’s because I made it up. Or rather, I inverted the particulars about the authors’ identities and their political views to make a point: If today, as a reader, you recoil at the thought of a time in which minorities were systematically marginalized when it came to the literary world’s public honors (and so much else), shouldn’t you also recoil now that the tables have been almost completely turned? And if you object to the right’s efforts to politicize the arts, won’t you also object when the efforts come from the left?
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Jesse Eisinger @jeisinger.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
NEW: In ‘24, the FBI sought to launch a sweeping bribery probe that could ensnare top lawmakers, including Sen. Susan Collins. Then Trump eviscerated the FBI & DOJ public corruption teams. ProPublica unearthed the investigation and you can read it 👇 www.propublica.org/article/fbi-...
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Roger Parloff @rparloff.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
In an important hyperscale data center case, the govt has claimed a never-before-invoked right to dismiss an environmental suit brought by NAACP against Musk's xAI, citing national security. Judge said he'd likely deny but hasn't. Govt has now appealed his "constructive" denial to 5th Cir.
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James Talarico @jamestalarico.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
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Subscribe to Radio Free America (link in bio) @kleinman.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Taylor Lorenz is proof that Elon's ideological project at Twitter is working. Yeah, the lady who spends 18 hours a day online suddenly got more right wing after he took over, that was the point.
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Matatoes Lasagna @matatoeslasagna.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Hegseth: We're making all the manly soldier men take testosterone... Miller: We must secure the existence... Trump: I want to kiss the handsome Muslim
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The Associated Press @apnews.com · 22/09/2026
A Mississippi wildlife rescue gives abandoned and injured baby raccoons their best chance of survival through a program they call "raccoon boot camp."
bit.ly
A raccoon boot camp in Mississippi teaches abandoned kits survival skills
A Mississippi wildlife rescue gives abandoned and injured baby raccoons their best chance of survival through a program they call “raccoon boot camp.”
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Andy @andyoregon.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
“Indeed, nearly a year after Trump responded to an Epstein question by a female Bloomberg journalist with the words, “Quiet, piggy,” the mainstream media has finally said it back to him.” The latest must read from @lebassett.bsky.social www.laura-bassett.com/p/fox-news-f...
laura-bassett.com
Fox News finally stood up to Trump
The president’s war on the free press blew up in his face today as his favorite network went dark on him in solidarity with CNN.
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Laura Bassett @lebassett.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Has Trump reacted to Fox News going dark on him yet
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Matthew Eadie @mattheweadie.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
BREAKING: Evanston police confirm a U.S. citizen was briefly detained by federal agents Sunday morning near Howard and Dodge before being released The man was taken to the hospital for injuries to his head, neck and teeth after agents drove off
evanstonnow.com
Federal agents detained U.S. citizen Sunday morning - Evanston Now
Police chief says officers responded to a man with injuries to head, neck and teeth on Howard and made contact with agents involved.
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 20/09/2026
KARL: Do you support Trump banning news organizations because he doesn't like what they're reporting? SCALISE: Look, Biden removed the press credentials from 400 agencies KARL: That's not true. 400 reporters who had credentials didn't reapply. They weren't banned from the WH. That did not happen.
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