Luke Thomas
Combat sports analyst. One half of @MorningKombat. Occasional learner.
- Reposted by Luke ThomasEven if you don't have time to read all 83 pages of Judge Reyes's opinion barring the Trump administration from rescinding Temporary Protected Status for 350,000+ Haitians, please at least check out the four-page introduction. It's a tour de force: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
- I spoke to @attackerman.bsky.social about how ICE and their tyranny, methods, extra-legal justifications and ethnic cleansing campaign can't be understood properly without realizing ICE is our inheritance from the war on terror. Truly illuminating from Spencer: lthomas.substack.com/p/war-on-ter...
- Reposted by Luke ThomasA Minnesota woman observing ICE agents in her car was cornered on one-way streets. An agent approached, called her by name—citing facial recognition. Days later, her Global Entry and TSA privileges were revoked, with no explanation.
- Reposted by Luke ThomasWeird that hiring away a few checked-out Tory alcoholics from British dailies and emphasizing op eds about Why Your Boss Deserves A Tax Cut didn't deliver better results but what can you do? What, at the end of the day, can you do?
- Jeff Bezos is putting the Washington Post into hospice: defector.com/jeff-bezos-i...
- Reposted by Luke ThomasAs strange and alarming images come out of Minneapolis, I’ve been thinking again about this article @tomscocca.bsky.social published after January 6th 🧵
- Reposted by Luke ThomasMarkey seems a bit confused here. Qualified immunity applies to state and local police. Feds have almost complete immunity (from civil liability, *not* criminal). It looks like his bill would basically strip any sort of immunity from all of them. Which is sensible, but definitely won’t pass.
- To understand ICE's violence mandate, you have to understand Trump has for years claimed policing is too kind, stop-and-frisk was good and that police should have immunity from prosecution. For Trump, ICE is violent because, to him, *that is authentic policing*. New video: youtu.be/JVa66a3PeIY?...
- Reposted by Luke ThomasNew & free Punch-Out on @wrestlingobserver.bsky.social as the inimitable @lukethomas.bsky.social makes his show debut for an extended talk. We talk about the next stage of Morning Kombat, the evolution of his career, TKO taking over combat sports & lots more. Links below:
- Some tried to turn the lady’s encouragement as a sign she didn’t have legit media chops. She does. And it’s a kind sentiment that people appreciated. But this chumminess between sports org and media within combat sports has been a total cancer and is part of the reason CS media no longer functions.
- Sports reporters are there to ask the questions readers can't. Column from @candacedbuckner.bsky.social
- Reposted by Luke ThomasThere is a crisis of impunity. The Musk/Grok stuff is just one f many examples of people who are counting on there never being any consequences. And it all makes me just incandescently mad.
- Reposted by Luke ThomasICE is now behaving in such a way that even Tucker Carlson’s favorite Holocaust minimizing, Hitler-apologist “historian” is like “hey now guys, this is getting a little out of hand.”
- TKO might try to use their resources to boost Rahm’s political fortunes, but he has no juice with the Dem base. Zero. None. They could parade Rahm at every WWE and UFC event and it would do nothing. He’s the opposite of what the Dem base says they want and what they are voting for currently.
- @lukethomas.bsky.social do you think that if Rahm Emanuel does a presidential run then his brother, Ari, would use WWE, UFC, or both to boost him like they did with Trump and UFC? Would that be sort of a hard political U turn to make for a company doing recruitment ad for ICE?
- A few thoughts on the role ICE plays in a larger project of right-wing dominion: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI3j...
- Reposted by Luke ThomasLuke is correct. I've been immersed in the MMA ecosystem since the 1st time I skipped school to watch a UFC event on VHS. Until I voluntarily removed myself from it 1 yr ago, this was my life. It is different now. The UFC got what it wanted: An ignorant, compliant audience. Perfect for recruitment.
- ICE is recruiting UFC fans to be deportation officers, further proof that MMA and the UFC are a vector for right-wing politics in the U.S. www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwpV...
- Reposted by Luke ThomasWe've removed the paywall from this guide so everyone can access it. 👇 Stay safe.
- Reposted by Luke Thomasthis was also consensus opinion for center-right types after george floyd’s murder five years ago. the state media apparatus will be working overtime the next few weeks to reprogram them
- Reposted by Luke ThomasICE agent kills woman, DHS tells obvious, insane lies about it: defector.com/ice-agent-ki...
- Every video showing ICE agents is them acting without restraint. Pinning a pregnant woman to the ground, pointing weapons at bystanders unprovoked. Those who want you to not believe your lying eyes today also want you to not believe anything you've ever seen about ICE agents.
- ICE is recruiting UFC fans to be deportation officers, further proof that MMA and the UFC are a vector for right-wing politics in the U.S. www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwpV...
- It has never been more important in my lifetime to support independent media than right now.
- Reposted by Luke ThomasRIP absolute legend deadline.com/2025/12/isia...
- Reposted by Luke ThomasExclusive: A year after Tenet Media was busted for funneling Russian money to MAGA pundits like Benny Johnson and Tim Pool, a Trump administration effort involving State and the FBI has welcomed Tenet's founders back into the US. @thebulwark.com: www.thebulwark.com/p/lauren-che...
- Maybe you good folks can help me. I’ve cancelled my subs to WaPo and NYT (Gaza coverage, oligarch takeover, etc). I subscribe to many Substacks and indie media outlets, but I don’t really have a place to go for what we would consider traditional news reporting. Is there a solution to this?
- Reposted by Luke ThomasThese mf'ers will say this and then without a shred of irony claim the left has gotten extreme and the right has stayed the same.
- Reposted by Luke ThomasThe full spiked 60 Minutes CECOT package, clean & subtitled. 1/5
- Reposted by Luke ThomasCBS paid the president of the United States millions in bribe money and now they censor news reports so it does not annoy him. I don’t know how much plainer we can put this.
- Reposted by Luke ThomasMe: I don’t see the appeal of boxing TV: OK but what if it’s professional boxers savagely brutalizing influencers Me:
- This interview is now UNLOCKED and available to all: lthomas.substack.com/p/slavery-is...
- NEW: @patrickwyman.bsky.social has a history podcast not on great leaders, but more common folk. The theme for this season? World slavery: “Power is inseparable from labor. Power is inseparable from work. Slavery, studying it, what it tells us, is just how inseparable those two things are.”
- Reposted by Luke ThomasSo far I've heard of one prominent person telling this guy to fuck off, and shockingly it's an MMA guy
- Reposted by Luke Thomaswell well well if it isn’t the blowjob brothers
- Reposted by Luke ThomasAn absolute bedrock institution for understanding how the planet works, just civilization-scaled vandalism by the most incurious morons on Earth
- It’s also really incredible we used to have guys like this and Jordan Breen in MMA media. We are in a very different position today.
- NEW: @patrickwyman.bsky.social has a history podcast not on great leaders, but more common folk. The theme for this season? World slavery: “Power is inseparable from labor. Power is inseparable from work. Slavery, studying it, what it tells us, is just how inseparable those two things are.”
- NEW: @patrickwyman.bsky.social has a history podcast not on great leaders, but more common folk. The theme for this season? World slavery: “Power is inseparable from labor. Power is inseparable from work. Slavery, studying it, what it tells us, is just how inseparable those two things are.”
- This was such an illuminating read interview, one of my favorites since starting my S*bstsck. We talk this new podcast, explore the ways in which slavery still bleeds into the modern world, talk his time in combat sports and so much more. open.substack.com/pub/lthomas/...
- Instructive to watch the "how could the political figure who has done more to coarsen political discourse in our lifetime do something like this, a thing he has done many times?" right-wing cope on the Other Place timeline today.
- Reposted by Luke ThomasBuried under 12 paragraphs and 4 ads is this: that an investigation into the politicization of data was conducted not by … actually reviewing any data … but just by interviewing senior officials who disliked their chief. So more politics.
- Reposted by Luke ThomasBovino, the man overseeing mass deportations, publicly declared that we must all have our papers on us, at all times, or we could be stopped, harassed, kidnapped, and detained, as they did with the man in this case, who is a US citizen.
- Reposted by Luke ThomasIsrael has killed 249 journalists in the last 2 years. That's more than were killed in WWII & the Vietnam War put together. A Vermonter, Dylan Collins, was wounded in one of these attacks, which killed another reporter. This war against journalists must be investigated & ended.
- Reposted by Luke ThomasThis is really incredible. The government's battle to deport Abrego Garcia has apparently been based on a lie from the start. Not even the "gang affiliation" lie or the "human smuggling" lie, but the more basic assertion that he was ordered to be deported in the first place.
- The nerve to write that immigrants are eating pets and then bemoan the growth of a fact-free, disinformation machine is unfathomable hypocrisy. Total chutzpah.
- Not even rich people, necessarily! You can take out a loan to pay for this!
- Caffeine consumption among humans can be traced back to the 15th century and across continents. From my cold dead hands you'll take it back.
- Cafes across the U.S. are embracing the low- and no-caffeine lifestyle, with options that are a far cry from dusty tea bags and rewarmed decaf. nyti.ms/3XKlqoj
- Amazing what job opportunities are afforded to you in modern media when you're willing to dehumanize Palestinian life and denigrate writers (Ta-Nehisi Coates) who author works underscoring their needs.
- Reposted by Luke Thomas$140m. Think of how many cancer drug trials or free school lunches this could have paid for www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...
- Reposted by Luke Thomas[This post could not be retrieved]
- Max Kellerman once called LeBron James a "sellout" because James criticized Daryl Morey after Morey tweeted in support of Hong Kong protestors in 2019. I don't know who the real Kellerman is, but the idea the guy tap dancing for theocratic monarchies is the same guy from 2019 seems wrong.
- Land of the free.
- "I cannot imagine figuring out how to raise a newborn without ChatGPT." I can and did? AI evangelists play this game where they'll suggest a task is so impossible without AI except people do it all the time and no one considers AI the antidote to the problem.
- Max Kellerman has become an avowed stooge for TKO's quest for boxing monopolization as well as Saudi Arabia's combat sports pursuits, which is being ignored everywhere as he returns to public prominence. Sports media never had it's Riyadh Comedy Festival reckoning and we're all worse off for it.
- “They completely misunderstood why he’s good, which is par for the course for ESPN, by the way.” awfulannouncing.com/ringer/bill-...
- I say this as a (now former) Kellerman fan. His turn in this direction has been so insanely disappointing.
- This is a positive development, but it's really quite insane it's taken so long to rein this madness in. We've unleashed forces on society without any consideration of what they'd do to us. Now we're know they're damaging both personally and even at the society-wide level. Much more is needed.
- Australia is set to become the first country to implement a minimum age for social media use, with platforms like Instagram, TikTok and YouTube forced to block more than a million accounts, marking the beginning of an expected global wave of regulation reut.rs/4pS1oE5 1/7
- Reposted by Luke ThomasAt some point it may occur to the extremely wealthy people on Netflix’s side that the best way to save their deal is to make sure everyone in America knows how corrupt Trump and Ellison are. Their opponents paid off the referees! Make some noise about it!
- This user blocks the quoter.this pretty much guarantees months and months of performative bullshit by Trump and Ellison and right wing media about how Netflix ownership would be a woke antitrust nightmare, but letting Larry and his nepobaby son dominate U.S. media would be a delightful, populist spritzer
- Reposted by Luke ThomasWonder who's gonna win the UFC Peace Prize
- Reposted by Luke ThomasHearing that @lukethomas.bsky.social was the only media member at the TKO Ali Act hearing is both hilarious and sad and not surprising but revealing all at the same time. substack.com/@lukethomasn...
- Reposted by Luke Thomasi strongly, strongly believe that good writing is downstream of clear thinking and a strong understanding of the subject matter at hand. without fail, tortured writing comes from writers who don’t know and can’t think clearly about anything.
- (Almost) every week, I create a list of interesting stories or articles I read on a variety of topics. This week it's forever chemicals, Buffalo Bills stadium financing, why Hollywood should remake *bad* movies & thoughts on the male loneliness epidemic: lthomas.substack.com/p/what-i-rea...
- What the fuck does this even mean?
- Reposted by Luke Thomasmy guy is cooked
- In sports media alone I’ve long said that whatever your quibbles with establishment media, you’re going to hate their influencer replacement so much more. Turns out this applies far beyond mere sports.
- Reposted by Luke ThomasIf crimes against humanity are not an impeachable offense, what’s the point? www.axios.com/2025/12/01/j...
- Reposted by Luke ThomasI wrote a book about US media’s complicity in the Gaza genocide. It's available for pre-order. It’s a data-driven and, I hope, thorough account of how center-left media sold the American public on mass death in Gaza. Out 4/21. 100% of royalties go to @mecaforpeace.bsky.social.
- I still get value from social media in finding interesting things to read or understanding modern trends/discussions or as a way to observe for various purposes, generally. However, I use it more passively than ever. I am growing more inclined to participate in it less as time goes on.
- Reposted by Luke ThomasFrom attending Kadyrov’s heir’s 18th birthday and testing rocket launchers to fake real estate deals, former UFC champ Jon Jones proved eager to play the sanctioned strongman’s stooge during his surprise visit to Chechnya www.sportspolitika.news/p/jon-jones-...
- Reposted by Luke ThomasWe’ve talked about how we in the media normalize (even incentivize) aberrant behavior by public figures who make it their brand. But just imagine if an official in your city or town had told a female reporter asking about a sex abuse scandal, “Quiet, piggy.” Headlines for days.
- Pretty easy to skirt law enforcement crackdowns when the White House prevents law enforcement from doing its job.
- Reposted by Luke ThomasThey thought they were going to get pretext to throw a bunch of liberals in prison bsky.app/profile/maya...
- Will always be puzzled as to why Republicans hammered so hard on the Epstein stuff given that it was obvious that it would be a huge risk for their own guy Trump and Epstein were buddies throughout the height of his trafficking -- what did they think would happen? www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/u...
- Reposted by Luke ThomasWait until Kash Patel and Dan Bongino find out about this! It’ll break the case wide open!
- Reposted by Luke ThomasNew: The Supreme Court DENIES Kim Davis' request to overturn Obergefell, the marriage equality decision. No noted dissents. www.supremecourt.gov/orders/court...
- Reposted by Luke ThomasThe great @lukethomas.bsky.social on the Fighting Matters podcast on the UFC betting scandal youtu.be/y95VCx8Y4AY?...
- Every week I compile the more interesting articles I’ve read (or videos I’ve watched). This week it’s how Mamdani won, why billionaires can’t make good art and the Japanese turning to bodybuilders to help with elder care. No paywall! lthomas.substack.com/p/what-i-rea...
- Every week (no paywall) I collect the best articles I read. In today's newsletter, I have a conversation w/ the director of a new documentary on the growth of girls wrestling. That side of the sport is EXPLODING in popularity, so I wanted to learn more: lthomas.substack.com/p/the-explos...
- You can’t believe the firestorm I was in the middle of this week. Truly the dumbest controversy ever.
- Are boxing promoters underestimating the power that Zuffa Boxing will wield if/when the new Ali Act bill passes? @heynottheface.bsky.social & I discuss it & how @lukethomas.bsky.social is correct about UFC intentionally being right wing, & more. heynottheface.substack.com/p/are-boxing...
- Reposted by Luke ThomasAre boxing promoters underestimating the power that Zuffa Boxing will wield if/when the new Ali Act bill passes? @heynottheface.bsky.social & I discuss it & how @lukethomas.bsky.social is correct about UFC intentionally being right wing, & more. heynottheface.substack.com/p/are-boxing...
- This interview is now UNLOCKED and open to all. I asked Khan about the FTC before her time investigating UFC twice but electing to not take action. What, if anything, can we infer from that? Here's what she said:
- My interview with @linamkhan.bsky.social is LIVE! We talk: * FTC under Obama investigating UFC 2x * How Reagan changed the FTC and government * Gamers apologizing to her about Microsoft/Activision * Meta being a "serial" violator of the law And more! lthomas.substack.com/p/lina-khan-...
- Khan on gamers apologizing to her over her attempt to stop Microsoft purchasing Activision now that layoffs are here and prices have skyrocketed for Game Pass:
- My interview with @linamkhan.bsky.social is LIVE! We talk: * FTC under Obama investigating UFC 2x * How Reagan changed the FTC and government * Gamers apologizing to her about Microsoft/Activision * Meta being a "serial" violator of the law And more! lthomas.substack.com/p/lina-khan-...
- My interview with @linamkhan.bsky.social is LIVE! We talk: * FTC under Obama investigating UFC 2x * How Reagan changed the FTC and government * Gamers apologizing to her about Microsoft/Activision * Meta being a "serial" violator of the law And more! lthomas.substack.com/p/lina-khan-...
- Reposted by Luke ThomasThe Federal Trade Commission received 200 complaints mentioning ChatGPT between November 2022 and August 2025. Several attributed delusions, paranoia, and spiritual crises to the chatbot.
- I spoke to the former head of the FTC behind click to cancel rules, the attempted blocking of Microsoft buying Activision & much more: antitrust hero @linamkhan.bsky.social (full interview out tomorrow!). In this clip, she discusses TKO trying to legislate in exemptions to the Ali Act. 1/2
- For more, subscribe to my Substack: lthomas.substack.com/p/lina-khan-...
