nataliya braginsky

U.S. District Judge April Perry says it comes down to a "credibility determination."

"I simply cannot credit [the Trump administration's] declarations to the extent they contradict state and local law enforcement. … DHS' perception of events are simply unreliable."

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

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)

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

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

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

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

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.

Trump’s NSPM-7 Labels Common Beliefs As Terrorism “Indicators” New order targets “anti-Christian,” “anti-American,” and “anti-capitalism” opinions

🚨 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...

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

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...

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

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.

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.

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

“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...

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

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.

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/...

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.🧵⬇️

look at this bullshit.

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

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.🧵

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

BORN IN FLAMES is a NYT Editors' Choice title

When the Bronx Burned, Tenants Died and Landlords Got Rich

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...

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…

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

“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

When the Bronx Burned, Tenants Died and Landlords Got Rich

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...

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!

When the Bronx Burned, Tenants Died and Landlords Got Rich

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:

Today is publication day and I can't wait for my pre-ordered copy to arrive. CONGRATULATIONS BENCH! Get your own copy today and read it with others.

Screenshot of New Yorker article titled "Did Racial Capitalism Set the Bronx on Fire?" by Daniel Immerwahr

Exhilarating for BORN IN FLAMES to receive a feature review in the pages of the @newyorker.com. Immerwahr and I come to different conclusions about racial capitalism and the burning years, but I hope our debate will be fruitful for others. -->

New York Post headline reading: "Greedy landlords - not Bronx residents - were really to blame for the fires that ravaged NYC in the '70s and '80s: new book"

Getting "greedy landlords" printed in the NY Post is surreal. Never thought I'd be in the tabloids.

Less than one week until the publication of BORN IN FLAMES! It makes a huge difference if you *preorder* before 8/19! Get the book from any outlet and my press will send you these 4 beautiful stickers once you fill out the form copied below.