Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Francine McKenna

Alan Dettlaff @alandettlaff.com · 15h

Yesterday I was told that the class I’m scheduled to teach this month, Confronting Oppression & Injustice, is no longer part of our curriculum. This is a required class yet there was no discussion, no faculty vote, just an email saying the class no longer exists. This is what it’s like in Texas now.

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Rob Chapman @scribblerrob.bsky.social · 16h

Nobody mentioning Looking For Mr Goodbar on these tributes. Never gets shown anywhere. It was a v brave and bleak film and it divided opinion but once seen never forgotten. And it was the first film to give disco nocturnal danger and edge.

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Francine McKenna @fmckenna.bsky.social · 15h

One of my favorites.

Francine McKenna @fmckenna.bsky.social · 15h

Shoot the Moon! What a great film!

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Tom Reagan’s Hat @rufustsuperfly.bsky.social · 17h

RIP Diane Keaton
My favourite picture of her where everyone else is giving it their best Blue Steel & she looks like she’s just wandered in off the street looking super cool.
She was allowed to wear her own clothes & her wonderful personality shines out.
What a unique talent & human being.

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Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 22h

I'm so proud of everyone from my old neighborhood of Rogers Park in Chicago. I see what you have been and are doing. I am so proud of how organized the community is and how much more so everyone is becoming. It is inspiring. Just one example... And this is something EVERYONE can do. Everyone.

Informational flyer about Rogers Park Whistle Protocols, explaining how to use whistles to alert neighbors of emergencies, with color-coded alerts, steps for use, and encouragement to form a crowd and stay loud for safety.

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Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 2d

Our plane to Spain is in the air!

🙌🙌

Thank you so much to the countless people supporting us in every way and in particular all of the Rutgers students and faculty who have supported us every step of the way.

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David Gilbert @davidgilbert.bsky.social · 2d

BREAKING:

"Just landed."

Mark Bray confirms to me this morning that he and his family did, on the second attempt, make it out of the US and to Spain

www.wired.com/story/mark-b...

He Wrote a Book About Antifa. Death Threats Are Driving Him Out of the US

Rutgers historian Mark Bray is trying to flee to Spain after after an online campaign from far-right influencers was followed by death threats. He was turned back at the airport on his first attempt.

www.wired.com

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Rich Raho @richraho.bsky.social · 16h

Chicago priest Fr. Larry Dowling describes procession to ICE facility: “No one had the courage to speak directly to us. No one from Homeland Security could stand in the presence of the Monstrance holding the Blessed Sacrament. No wonder. Evil is repelled, recoils in the presence of Christ.”

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Francine McKenna @fmckenna.bsky.social · 16h

open.substack.com/pub/thedig/p... I interview, via video, the legendary Erik Lie of stock option backdating fame. He has a new book out, Catching Cheats, which I highly recommend.

Video: An Interview with Professor Erik Lie

Prof. Lie is a legend for his research into stock options backdating that inspired a WSJ investigation that won a Public Service Pulitzer. We talk about his new book, Catching Cheats, and what's next.

open.substack.com

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Preorder Read This When Things Fall Apart @mskellymhayes.bsky.social · 22h

My publisher’s been very patient. I’m not doing everything I said I’d do to promote this book (out in a few weeks) because I’m an organizer in a city under federal attack. My days are full and emotionally exhausting. Any help getting the word out means a lot. It's a book people need right now.

Read This When Things Fall Apart by Kelly Hayes | Pilsen Community Books

A bundle of letters to activists and organizers on the frontlines in catastrophic times from Let This Radicalize You co-author Kelly Hayes In social movements, some heartbreaks are all but inevitable.

www.pilsencommunitybooks.com

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Francine McKenna @fmckenna.bsky.social · 21h

USDe is the riskiest kind of stablecoin an algorithmic stablecoin, like the infamous Terra/Luna. “The USDe token is backed by a reserve of digital assets, including stablecoins like USDT and USDC. Ethena uses a version of the basis trade for its stablecoin, which exploits price discrepancies...”

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Francine McKenna @fmckenna.bsky.social · 22h

😬

Francine McKenna @fmckenna.bsky.social · 22h

My cover story in this market is in Chicago Booth Review right now. www.chicagobooth.edu/review/in-st...

In Stablecoins We Trust?

Regulation could help lead crypto from the Wild West to Wall Street.

www.chicagobooth.edu

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Francine McKenna @fmckenna.bsky.social · 22h

This is ominous. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Third-Largest Stablecoin Briefly Loses Dollar Peg in Crypto Rout

Crypto project Ethena’s yield-bearing stablecoin briefly lost its dollar peg during a market rout that triggered record liquidations.

www.bloomberg.com

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Francine McKenna @fmckenna.bsky.social · 1d

I was in Cambridge and London a few weeks ago. I walked about with 50 all week and came home with it

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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 1d

CHICAGO — WGN News editor/producer Debbie Brockman grabbed by Trump’s ICE goons.. who then intentionally ram a bystander’s car as they peel away.

More: www.fox32chicago.com/news/wgn-new...

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Heartland Signal @heartlandsignal.bsky.social · 1d

BREAKING: Masked Border Patrol agents aggressively arrested WGN video producer Debbie Brockman in Lincoln Square Friday morning, supposedly for "obstructing justice." (Video via Josh Thomas on Facebook)

Follow @heartlandsignal for more.

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Blake Montgomery @montgomery.bsky.social · 1d

We obtained leaked recordings of Peter Thiel's off-the-record lectures about the antichrist. Here's what one of the most powerful men in Silicon Valley and US politics is saying about the end of the world behind closed doors.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Inside tech billionaire Peter Thiel’s off-the-record lectures about the antichrist

The political svengali and investor has been giving lectures on ‘an evil king or tyrant … who appears in the end times’

www.theguardian.com

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Oliver Darcy @oliverdarcy.bsky.social · 1d

News: Bari Weiss just sent a memo to staffers at CBS News asking them to produce a memo explaining "how you spend your working hours—and ideally, what you've made (or are making) that you're most proud of."

One CBS News staffer puts it like this to me: "We just got Elon Musked."

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ousvyatsky.bsky.social @ousvyatsky.bsky.social · 1d

Interim IRS guidance may lower $MSTR and $COIN tax liability on unrealized bitcoin gains related to fair value adjustments. Our new piece with @fmckenna.bsky.social

Strategy popularized Bitcoin treasuries but the cash to pay for it doesn't grow on the blockchain open.substack.com/pub/deepquar...

Bitcoin treasuries have market and interest rate risk, face earnings volatility from fair-value adjustments, and liquidity is trapped in a volatile asset. Just wait until regulatory scrutiny returns!

open.substack.com

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Jacob Silverman @jacobsilverman.com · 4d

For The Nation, I wrote about Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's time on an advisory board for an Israeli crypto company and the cash payout he might be eligible for this week.
www.thenation.com/article/poli...

Pete Hegseth’s Crypto History

Does the defense secretary have unclaimed earnings from a firm he formerly advised?

www.thenation.com

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Max Chafkin @chafkin.bsky.social · 2d

Reviewed @jacobsilverman.com’s Gilded Rage for @bloomberg.com. A smart, thorough look at the radicalization of silicon valley. Gift link www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

What Really Drove Silicon Valley’s Shift to the Right

In Gilded Rage, journalist Jacob Silverman argues that a decade of free cash turned tech’s utopians into power brokers and made Trump their unlikely ally.

www.bloomberg.com

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Jacob Silverman @jacobsilverman.com · 4d

It's pub day for my book, "Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley," which chronicles the rise of the tech right and their role in the 2024 election. Thanks to everyone who helped along the way.
linktr.ee/gildedrage

Gilded Rage | Linktree

A searing look at the rise of Silicon Valley's far right. Out October 2025.

linktr.ee

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unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 1d

Troopers with batons aggressively shoving crowd back.

Just saw two demonstrators arrested.

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