Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by nataliya braginsky

Bench Ansfield @benchansfield.bsky.social · 5h

NYC come thru!! I'll be doing two BORN IN FLAMES launch events next week 10/16 and 10/18. Plz spread the word!

(links to follow)

Two posters for the Born in Flames launch.

OCTOBER 16 // 7pm // $7-15
Maysles Documentary Center
Screening of Decade of Fire + Book Panel with organizer and writer Shellyne Rodriguez, director Vivian Vázquez, and Elliot Liu of Take Back the Bronx

OCTOBER 18 // 2:30pm // $15-20
Museum of the City of New York
In Conversation with Ritti Singh (Housing Justice for All and NYS Tenant Bloc) and curator of social activism Sarah Seidman

1 8 16

Reposted by nataliya braginsky

Zócalo Public Square @zocalopublicsquare.bsky.social · 6d

By leaning on insurance-based solutions to deep-seated societal problems, California has put itself on a path toward repeating the mistakes of the past, warns Temple University historian @benchansfield.bsky.social. zps.la/4nuhIdv

The Disasters ‘High-Risk’ Insurance Fails to Paper Over | Essay

From the Watts Riots to 2025 Wildfires, California’s FAIR Plan Has Stood in the Way of Transformative Change

zps.la

2 4

Reposted by nataliya braginsky

Bench Ansfield @benchansfield.bsky.social · 5d

After the Palisades & Eaton fires, insurers leaned on a program designed to respond to the '60s uprisings. The climate crisis is being hedged with the same faulty tools created for the urban crisis. I wrote about that inheritance for @zocalopublicsquare.bsky.social and @sfchronicle.com

Screenshot of the SF Chronicle with the headline "How the Watts Uprising in LA led to the state's FAIR insurance plan"

1 2 7

Reposted by nataliya braginsky

amanda moore 🐢 @noturtlesoup17.bsky.social · 11d

A man was just chased and arrested outside of the Broadview ICE facility in Chicago. When legal observers from the National Lawyers Guild asked why, an agent threatened to arrest them too.

89 3.8K 8K

Reposted by nataliya braginsky

Ken Klippenstein @kenklippenstein.bsky.social · 11d

🚨 New directive NSPM-7 targets "anti-capitalism," “anti-Christian,” and “anti-American" opinions as indicators of extremist violence, authorizing an army of 4,000 counter-terrorism officers to prevent crimes that haven't happened:
www.kenklippenstein.com/p/trumps-nsp...

Trump’s NSPM-7 Labels Common Beliefs As Terrorism “Indicators”

New order targets “anti-Christian,” “anti-American,” and “anti-capitalism” opinions

www.kenklippenstein.com

230 1.5K 3.4K

Reposted by nataliya braginsky

Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 13d

Trump just signed an illegal executive order designed to target his political opposition by designating them terrorists and using the DOJ, IRS, FBI, and the JTTF to investigate and charge liberal organizations, funders, members, and protesters.

www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence

NATIONAL SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM/NSPM-7 MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

www.whitehouse.gov

120 1K 2.2K

nataliya braginsky @nataliyabraginsky.bsky.social · 15d

I don’t just read the Torah, I am the Torah

1

Reposted by nataliya braginsky

Bench Ansfield @benchansfield.bsky.social · 15d

How can the housing struggles of the 1970s guide the tenant movement in the present? @city.bsky.social breaks it down in this electrifying review of BORN IN FLAMES for @newrepublic.com

If you want to better understand why cities chose police funding over habitability, read this.

Screenshot of Tracy Rosenthal's review in The New Republic of Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City.

1 6 20

nataliya braginsky @nataliyabraginsky.bsky.social · 16d

“But what makes this parallel feel most apt is how nervous I am about drawing it.” - M. Gessen www.nytimes.com/2025/09/21/o...

Opinion | This Is the Feeling of Losing a Country. I Know It Well.

www.nytimes.com

2

Reposted by nataliya braginsky

Peter @notalawyer.bsky.social · 21d

what ezra doesn't seem willing to accept is that charlie kirk was part of a political movement that does not think that "we are going to have to live here with each other" and is fact very interested in the elimination and/or subjugation of many, many people

Ezra Klein @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social · 21d

"All I can say for me in the work I do is that I want to create a space that takes our disagreements seriously, that takes the stakes of them seriously, the consequences for people seriously, but does so without deepening our divisions irreparably. We are going to have to live here with each other"

120 890 5K

nataliya braginsky @nataliyabraginsky.bsky.social · 22d

From the 2024 study that was just removed from DOJ’s website: “Militant, nationalistic, violent extremism has increased in the United States. In fact, the number of far-right attacks continues to outpace all other types of terrorism and domestic violent extremism.”
newrepublic.com/post/200537/...

DOJ Quietly Deletes Study on Politics of Domestic Terrorists

The Justice Department has taken down a study that proves Republicans’ entire narrative wrong about left-wing violence.

newrepublic.com

1 3

Reposted by nataliya braginsky

Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 24d

"I just want to say, go birds, fuck ICE and free Palestine," "Hacks" star Hannah Einbinder at the #Emmys

660 11K 52K

Reposted by nataliya braginsky

Bench Ansfield @benchansfield.bsky.social · 24d

Photo captured just before Sal drooled all over the book review of Born in Flames in the Sunday NYT

A copy of today’s Sunday Times Book Review featuring Brian Goldstone’s review of BORN IN FLAMES. Alongside it is a copy of the book.

A beautiful black and brown dog looks at the newspaper featuring the BORN IN FLAMES review.

1 2 20

Reposted by nataliya braginsky

Brian Goldstone @brian-goldstone.bsky.social · 25d

America is now a place where a prominent cable news host can openly call for homeless people to be murdered — and face zero consequences.

100 770 2.5K

Reposted by nataliya braginsky

emily moonlight @threnody.bsky.social · 26d

hi, cis folks!

the WSJ endangered trans lives with false reporting yesterday. it’s still accepted as truth by many, regardless of it being false. the article’s still up with a little note. it needs full retraction.

it's not even a phone call—it's email. you can do this.

contact info below.🧵⬇️

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this article detailed how an internal law enforcement bulletin said that ammunition recovered following the Charlie Kirk shooting was engraved with expressions of "transgender and anti-fascist ideology." Justice Department officials later urged caution about the bulletin by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, saying it may not accurately reflect the messages on the ammunition, and the article was updated Thursday to reflect that.

This editor's note was appended on Friday, Sept. 12, after Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said the engravings included one that said "Hey fascist!" along with other messages and symbols. He gave no indication that the ammunition included any transgender references.

10 1.5K 3.1K

Reposted by nataliya braginsky

Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 28d

look at this bullshit.

Ida Bae Wells @nhannahjones.bsky.social · 28d

The MSNBC commentator saying that most political violence has historically come from the left just once again showed how we suffer from failing to learn history. Lynching, pogroms, race riots, the political violence that ended Reconstruction, and against the Civil Rights Movement. Come on.

19 300 1.7K

nataliya braginsky @nataliyabraginsky.bsky.social · 29d

A script for making these calls: 5calls.org/issue/gender...

2

Reposted by nataliya braginsky

emily moonlight @threnody.bsky.social · 29d

hi, cis folks!

if you said you’d stand with trans people, we need you now.

the FY26 budget bill gets a vote by 9/30. the GOP wants to jam a ban on federal funding for ALL health services that provide trans care for ANY AGE.

we need you to call senators: reps.fyi

more info & script downthread.🧵

Eric Michael Garcia @ericmgarcia.bsky.social · Sep 8

NEWS: House Appropriations Committee Republicans released their spending bill for Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies. The legislation would prohibit taxpayer dollars for any type of gender-affirming care for transgender people. This would include programs like Medicaid

SEC. 243. None of the funds made available by this Act may be used to implement, administer, or enforce Executive Order 13988, entitled ‘‘Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation’’, published by the Executive Office of the President on January 25, 2021 (86 Fed. Reg. 7023).

SEC. 244. None of the funds made available by this Act may be used for any social, psychological, behavioral,or medical intervention performed for the purposes of in16 tentionally changing the body of an individual (including
by disrupting the body’s development, inhibiting its natural functions, or modifying its appearance) to no longer correspond to the individual’s biological sex.

7 4.9K 4.7K

Reposted by nataliya braginsky

Bench Ansfield @benchansfield.bsky.social · Sep 5

BORN IN FLAMES is a NYT Editors' Choice title

Screenshot of the NYT website featuring Born in Flames by Bench Ansfield and Black Moses by Caleb Gayle

2 5 33

Reposted by nataliya braginsky

Mark Anthony Neal (@NewBlackMan on X) @markanthonyneal.bsky.social · Aug 21

When the Bronx Burned, Tenants Died and Landlords Got Rich

“Born in Flames,” by the historian Bench Ansfield, recounts how the wave of urban arson in the 1970s devastated poor communities while enriching building owners.
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/20/b...

When the Bronx Burned, Tenants Died and Landlords Got Rich

www.nytimes.com

1 10 29

Reposted by nataliya braginsky

Bench Ansfield @benchansfield.bsky.social · Aug 21

Thanks Lit Hub!
lithub.com/what-should-...

What Should You Read Next? Here Are the Best Reviewed Books of the Week

Nicholas Boggs’ Baldwin: A Love Story, Elaine Hsieh Chou’s Where Are You Really From, and Bench Ansfield’s Born in Flames all feature among the best reviewed books of the week. Brought to you by Bo…

lithub.com

1 5

Reposted by nataliya braginsky

Nick Turse @nickturse.bsky.social · Aug 20

“The daily cost of the D.C. troop deployment is more than six times what it would cost to operate affordable housing for D.C.’s entire unhoused population. The government’s priorities could not be more clear," said @hannahomestead.bsky.social of @nationalpriorities.bsky.social

The Intercept @theintercept.com · Aug 20

An analysis conducted for the Intercept found that the militarization of D.C. could end up costing hundreds of millions.

Price Tag for Trump’s D.C. Military Surge: At Least $1 Million a Day

An analysis conducted for the Intercept found that the militarization of D.C. could end up costing hundreds of millions.

interc.pt

12 330 640

Reposted by nataliya braginsky

Kate Redburn @kredburn.bsky.social · Aug 20

The astounding triumph Born in Flames by @benchansfield.bsky.social is out! The rare work of history that changes common sense - in this case the burning of the Bronx and other cities in the 70s - while also making revelatory moves for theory and historiography.
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/20/b...

When the Bronx Burned, Tenants Died and Landlords Got Rich

www.nytimes.com

1 2 8

Reposted by nataliya braginsky

Bench Ansfield @benchansfield.bsky.social · Aug 20

Can't express how much this review of BORN IN FLAMES by Brian Goldstone in the NYT means to me.

Goldstone's THERE IS NO PLACE FOR US is among the most important books about housing in the US in the 21st cent. Thanks @brian-goldstone.bsky.social for this stunning review.

BORN IN FLAMES is out now!

Brian Goldstone @brian-goldstone.bsky.social · Aug 20

During the 1970s, an arson wave ravaged poor communities across the US. Some lost 80% of their housing. Residents were blamed.

In reality, landlords—paid by insurers and enabled by the state—drove this arson-for-profit epidemic.

  I reviewed @benchansfield.bsky.social's revelatory BORN IN FLAMES:

When the Bronx Burned, Tenants Died and Landlords Got Rich

www.nytimes.com

1 10 21

Reposted by nataliya braginsky

Brian Goldstone @brian-goldstone.bsky.social · Aug 20

During the 1970s, an arson wave ravaged poor communities across the US. Some lost 80% of their housing. Residents were blamed.

In reality, landlords—paid by insurers and enabled by the state—drove this arson-for-profit epidemic.

  I reviewed @benchansfield.bsky.social's revelatory BORN IN FLAMES:

When the Bronx Burned, Tenants Died and Landlords Got Rich

www.nytimes.com

15 300 710