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Reposted by Francine McKenna

Blake Montgomery @montgomery.bsky.social · 2h

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 · 3h

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 · 2h

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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Reposted by Francine McKenna

Jacob Silverman @jacobsilverman.com · 3d

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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Reposted by Francine McKenna

Max Chafkin @chafkin.bsky.social · 6h

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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Reposted by Francine McKenna

Jacob Silverman @jacobsilverman.com · 3d

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 · 4h

Troopers with batons aggressively shoving crowd back.

Just saw two demonstrators arrested.

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unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 5h

This is the furthest back from the detention center we've seen police force people to demonstrate (note: this is local cops, not DHS/ICE).

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Jacob Silverman @jacobsilverman.com · 5h

I really appreciate this review of Gilded Rage in The Bulwark. I hoped that some of the book's concerns -- corruption, authoritarianism, rule of law, inequality, our shared stake in society -- would have broad appeal.
www.thebulwark.com/p/why-our-te...

Why Our Tech Overlords Took a Hard Right Turn

A new book tells the story of how Elon Musk and other Silicon Valley entrepreneurs became angry admirers of authoritarianism.

www.thebulwark.com

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Francine McKenna @fmckenna.bsky.social · 5h

A joint production today with Olga Usvyatsky on how Strategy, the OG of bitcoin treasury, like a fox has led many other chickens 🐓 out of the coop and in most cases to no good end. The juice is behind the paywall. I hope you will subscribe. thedig.substack.com/p/strategy-p...

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!

thedig.substack.com

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Reposted by Francine McKenna

Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 18h

BREAKING: Federal judge issues TRO following a second day of hearings, blocking the Trump administration from “ordering the federalization and deployment of the National Guard of the United States within Illinois” from now through Oct. 23. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS
EASTERN DIVISION
STATE OF ILLINOIS, a sovereign state; and the CITY OF CHICAGO, an Illinois municipal corporation,
Plaintiffs,
Case No. 25-cv-12174
Judge April M. Perry
V.
DONALD J. TRUMP, in his official capacity as President of the United States; DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; KRISTI NOEM, in her official capacity as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security;
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE; PETER B.
HEGSETH, in his official capacity as Secretary of the Department of Defense; UNITED STATES ARMY; DANIEL P. DRISCOLL, in his official capacity as Secretary of the Army,
Defendants.
TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER
This Court GRANTS Plaintiffs' Motion for a Temporary Restraining Order, Doc. 3, and
ORDERS as follows:
1. Defendants,' their officers, agents, assigns entered, and all persons acting in concert with them, are temporarily enjoined from ordering the federalization and deployment of the
National Guard of the United States within Illinois.
2. This Temporary Restraining Order is at 5:55 P.M. central time on this 9th day of October
2025 and expires on October 23, 2025 at 11:59 P.M.
'President Trump, one of the name Defendants, is not enjoined by this Order.

3. Within two (2) calendar days of entry of this Temporary Restraining Order, Plaintiffs
shall post a nominal bond of $100. The bond shall be filed in the Clerk's Office and be
deposited into the registry of the Court.
4. Defendants' Request to Stay or Administratively Stay the Temporary Restraining Order,
Doc. 62 at 58, is DENIED.
5. A telephone hearing will be held on October 22, 2025, at 9:00 A.M. to address whether
this Temporary Restraining Order should be extended for an additional fourteen (14)
calendar days.
Dated: October 9, 2025
Coul MPeray.
APRIL M. PERRY
United States District Judge
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Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 13h

Reporting live from Chicago, there’s no “hellscape” I’d rather be in.

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Nbits60 @nbits60.bsky.social · 1d

www.bbc.com/audio/play/w... Featuring the inimitable @molly.wiki and @fmckenna.bsky.social

BBC Audio | The Inquiry | Is Trump building a crypto economy?

Trump is embracing crypto, but is he building a new kind of American economy?

www.bbc.com

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Francine McKenna @fmckenna.bsky.social · 1d

I talked about Trump family and crypto with BBC World Service. Taped a few weeks ago but aired live on BBC World Service radio this morning (0700 GMT). www.bbc.com/audio/play/w...

BBC Audio | The Inquiry | Is Trump building a crypto economy?

Trump is embracing crypto, but is he building a new kind of American economy?

www.bbc.com

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James Martin, SJ @jamesmartinsj.bsky.social · 1d

Pope Leo XIV: "I often wonder, even though the teaching of Sacred Scripture is so clear about the poor, why many people continue to think that they can safely disregard the poor."

"Dilexi te"

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Heather Cox Richardson (TDPR) @hcrichardson.bsky.social · 1d

20 paragraphs down in the NBC News story that broke the information that the administration is considering invoking the Insurrection Act is the report that Stephen Miller is driving the issue.

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Francine McKenna @fmckenna.bsky.social · 1d

Oh! That is very bad.

Reposted by Francine McKenna

Sean O’Kane @seanokane.bsky.social · 1d

WSJ is reporting that the Truth Social post where Trump told Pam Bondi to prosecute Comey *really was supposed to be a private message*

www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Inside the Justice Department Where the President Calls the Shots

The president has executed a wholesale transformation of the Justice Department, taking control in ways he could have only dreamed of in his first term.

www.wsj.com

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Dan Mihalopoulos @dmihalopoulos.bsky.social · 1d

Another L for the G — and this time it’s a W for press freedom, in Chicago Headline Club et al vs. Noem.

Congratulations and heartfelt thanks on behalf of all journalists in Illinois #JournalismIsNotACrime

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Jacob Soboroff @jacobsoboroff.bsky.social · 1d

Michigan Avenue right now.

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Francine McKenna @fmckenna.bsky.social · 1d

Oh I could see these plays over and over… I saw Mahoney more than once in Chicago in his prime. Steppenwolf is a national treasure. (Also go to see Pinter, esp Betrayal productions, whenever I can.)

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Francine McKenna @fmckenna.bsky.social · 1d

Have tickets in Nov for Godot. Saw John Mahoney in Krapp’s Last Tape in Chicago 1996. Tour de force performance. www.chicagotribune.com/1996/04/26/k...

`KRAPP’S LAST TAPE’ HITS HOME

Many poets of the 20th Century have written of man’s essential isolation in this world; but it was Samuel Beckett’s great gift to be able to turn this feeling of alienation into vivid t…

www.chicagotribune.com

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Elizabeth Lopatto @lopatto.bsky.social · 3d

please read my memo www.theverge.com/business/793...

Memo to Bari Weiss Re: CBS News: You’re doomed

Bari Weiss has sold her company, The Free Press, to manage the decline of broadcast news at CBS. How many ways can it go wrong?

www.theverge.com

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Francine McKenna @fmckenna.bsky.social · 1d

Brilliant!

Reposted by Francine McKenna

Elizabeth Lopatto @lopatto.bsky.social · 2d

just going to speak this into the world: I would LOVE to be a fly on the wall for her first meeting with standards and practices. if you know anything, I'm very easy to reach xo

Elizabeth Lopatto @lopatto.bsky.social · 3d

please read my memo www.theverge.com/business/793...

Memo to Bari Weiss Re: CBS News: You’re doomed

Bari Weiss has sold her company, The Free Press, to manage the decline of broadcast news at CBS. How many ways can it go wrong?

www.theverge.com

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