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Francine McKenna

@fmckenna

Teacher/writer/speaker/reader. CPA. Using tools so tools can’t use me. Dogs rule! She/her Kundera: “In the sunset of dissolution, everything is illuminated by the aura of nostalgia.” I Dig. https://TheDig.Substack.com @retheauditors Chgo-born, Philly-based

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Latest posts by Francine McKenna @fmckenna

The reason she SHOULD have been fired.

06.03.2026 01:36 👍 2115 🔁 392 💬 32 📌 8
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Corporate Media Buries Story of US and Israel Killing 168 in Girls School Attack No front-page stories in NYT, WSJ, WaPo. No mention on NBC and CBS Sunday Shows. No stand alone segments on Evening News shows. A death count on par with the OKC bombing is relegated to the back page.

I wrote about how the US and Israel carried out an attack on an Iranian girls school on par with the OKC bombing and US media relegated it to a back page story. No stand alone evening news segments, no front page stories, it made A11 in the NYT then everyone moved on.

04.03.2026 21:58 👍 4175 🔁 1449 💬 36 📌 47
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ICE detains reporter Estefany Rodríguez in Nashville - Nashville Banner Reporter Estefany Rodríguez, detained by ICE with no arrest warrant, may face deportation. Her attorneys seek immediate review of the legality of her case.

ICE has arrested and detained a Nashville journalist who reported stories critical of ICE. She’s married to a U.S. citizen and has been seeking asylum here after fleeing death threats in Colombia because of her journalism there.

They’ve already sent her to Louisiana.

05.03.2026 23:41 👍 12088 🔁 7323 💬 288 📌 334
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Can AI Replace Social Science Researchers? No. No it can't. Come on, now.

New post: Can AI Replace Social Science Researchers? (No. No it can't. Come on, now.)

davekarpf.beehiiv.com/p/can-ai-rep...

05.03.2026 16:49 👍 462 🔁 128 💬 24 📌 37
a blonde dog named Nightingale stands up on a metal vet table. she looks up at the camera and we see several large bulbous tumors on both ears.

a blonde dog named Nightingale stands up on a metal vet table. she looks up at the camera and we see several large bulbous tumors on both ears.

a person in blue vet scrubs cradles Nightingale's mouth in her hand while examining her on a toweled vet table. the pup's paws are wrapped in medical bandages.

a person in blue vet scrubs cradles Nightingale's mouth in her hand while examining her on a toweled vet table. the pup's paws are wrapped in medical bandages.

two people smile at the camera. one of them holds up Nightingale in a tight cuddle. the pup is smiling, too.

two people smile at the camera. one of them holds up Nightingale in a tight cuddle. the pup is smiling, too.

This is Nightingale. She was found as a stray with large tumors in both her ears causing chronic pain. Thanks to your support of our merch, @15outof10.org was able to cover her $11,000 TECA surgery. She may be deaf now, but you can still tell her all your secrets. Best of all, she's been adopted ❤️‍🩹

05.03.2026 22:15 👍 1686 🔁 138 💬 20 📌 5

I have now watched all the Detective Montalbano, and even Young Montalbano. I am now fluent in Sicilian.

05.03.2026 18:50 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

I have now watched all the Detective Montalbano, and even Young Montalbano. I am now fluent in Sicilian.

05.03.2026 18:49 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Tell him he is smarter than his teachers and so it does not matter. That's what my mom did and look where it got me. 😉

05.03.2026 18:12 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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‘Lavender’: The AI machine directing Israel’s bombing spree in Gaza The Israeli army has marked tens of thousands of Gazans as suspects for assassination, using an AI targeting system with little human oversight and a permissive policy for casualties, +972 and Local C...

For some time

www.972mag.com/lavender-ai-...

05.03.2026 15:26 👍 7 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 1
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To strike 1,000 targets in 24 hours in Iran, the U.S. military leveraged the most advanced AI it’s ever used in warfare.

Anthropic’s Claude partnered with the military’s Maven Smart System, suggesting targets and issuing precise location coordinates. https://wapo.st/46BFe1T

05.03.2026 03:00 👍 474 🔁 222 💬 696 📌 861
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Hey ChatGPT, write me a fictional paper: these LLMs are willing to commit academic fraud Mainstream chatbots presented varying levels of resistance to deliberate requests for fabrication, study finds.

Why tenured academics and administrators insist that using this technology is unproblematic and just how the future should work with none of our input is baffling to me. Feels like a modern cargo cult.

05.03.2026 11:54 👍 429 🔁 92 💬 5 📌 0

Sorry I'm not more open-minded about LLMs, it's just some fucking maniacs shoveled out a bunch of useless bloatware featuring that technology, did not give me any chance to opt out, reorganized the entire economy around it, zeroed out gains made by green energy, and made it impossible to buy RAM

05.03.2026 05:17 👍 17103 🔁 5663 💬 128 📌 101
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Trump's Troubling RSVP While the WHCA publicly welcomed Trump’s decision to attend this year’s dinner, inside the organization, correspondents reacted with a mix of curiosity and dread—with several telling Status the conces...

From this: www.status.news/p/donald-tru...

05.03.2026 12:22 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

“His participation will at least lend the weekend some electricity,” the reporter continued. “And also, most importantly, give media reporters a fresh angle on the same story they’ve been writing for the last decade.”
Mebbe if this reporter wants electricity they can go to MN and get tased by ICR.

05.03.2026 12:22 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
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Betting On Armageddon Following a viral call-out from The Lever’s David Sirota, Polymarket has removed a market for predicting nuclear detonation.

🚨NEWS: Last night, The Lever exposed Polymarket creating a market for gambling on nuclear war/nuclear detonation — the subsequent public outcry has now prompted Polymarket to shut it down.

www.levernews.com/betting-on-a...

04.03.2026 19:06 👍 78 🔁 27 💬 8 📌 4

the kind of thing that gets played at a war crimes trial

04.03.2026 13:47 👍 5458 🔁 1103 💬 210 📌 42
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"It is fraud" -- Neguse nails Kristi Noem for lying during her testimony yesterday when she told the Senate that DHS's $220m ad campaign starring her "went out to a competitive bid" (it did not), and tells her "I think there's gonna be accountability" (1/2)

04.03.2026 18:03 👍 13155 🔁 3931 💬 406 📌 261

Not sure we really want someone who is better at her current job.

04.03.2026 19:01 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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U.S. sub sinks Iranian warship off Sri Lanka, killing 87 and expanding war zone A U.S. submarine sank an Iranian warship off the southern coast of Sri Lanka, killing dozens of sailors and dramatically widening Washington's pursuit of the Iranian navy.

A US submarine sinking a lonely, dinky Iranian surface ship an ocean away from the theater of the main conflict—and 9000
miles from North America—makes it pretty clear the US is fighting a general war, without the declaration required by the Constitution. www.reuters.com/world/asia-p...

04.03.2026 17:40 👍 13482 🔁 4968 💬 541 📌 295
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Randall on Mississippi: "One of the perpetrators of that fraud? Former NFL quarterback Brett Favre, who received $1.1m from the govt for speeches he never made. Congressional Republicans' response was to invite Favre to testify about how we should strengthen oversight of federal welfare programs."

04.03.2026 16:22 👍 4088 🔁 1255 💬 43 📌 48

A navy torpedo detonates under the target, lifts it out of the water and cracks the hull. The people who aren’t thrown overboard by the blast are knocked unconscious and buried alive in their compartments when the ship sinks. We did that to 141 people today for no reason.

04.03.2026 16:10 👍 2789 🔁 1242 💬 242 📌 50

My mom has that "record player"in her basement!

04.03.2026 16:39 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Best of Chicago 2025: Music & Nightlife - Chicago Reader An index of the Music & Nightlife staff picks for Best of Chicago 2025.

The Reader’s Best of Chicago issue is out today, I wrote 10 percent of the critic’s picks, which I’ll thread below. But first, here’s all the editorial contributions to the music and nightlife section

chicagoreader.com/best-of-chic...

04.03.2026 15:20 👍 40 🔁 11 💬 2 📌 1

he is 73 years old. my god.

04.03.2026 14:06 👍 328 🔁 118 💬 2 📌 0

Hegseth wants the people he sends to fight trump’s war of opportunity to die in anonymity.

04.03.2026 15:28 👍 1034 🔁 272 💬 27 📌 3

Pete Hegseth suggested this morning that reporting on the 6 U.S. service members who were killed in Trump's Iran war is an example of the news media 'trying to make Trump look bad.'

04.03.2026 15:15 👍 2311 🔁 840 💬 315 📌 175
My dad, a Chicago fireman is standing behind my mom, holding a brother.  I am standing in front of dad and my sister is the one pouting in the chair.  We would go to the firehouse for holidays if he had to work, so this was Christmas 1967.  Fond memories of fake sliding down the poles, great food by "Odd Jobs" the cook, and climbing on the trucks and hoses.  Older kids even got to take a ride up in the snorkel!

My dad, a Chicago fireman is standing behind my mom, holding a brother. I am standing in front of dad and my sister is the one pouting in the chair. We would go to the firehouse for holidays if he had to work, so this was Christmas 1967. Fond memories of fake sliding down the poles, great food by "Odd Jobs" the cook, and climbing on the trucks and hoses. Older kids even got to take a ride up in the snorkel!

Remembering dad on 9th anniversary of his death. A quiet hero with tough job: husband to my mom and father of six kids on a Chicago fireman's salary! (He came from WWII ravaged Glasgow as a teen with nada, he said, but a paper bag full of fresh skivvies. A wonder he almost always smiled.) ❤️

04.03.2026 15:37 👍 11 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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The Original Mr. Beef Opens At Midway Airport The legendary River North beef stand — made even more famous by FX's "The Bear" — opened its second location near gate B14.

blockclubchicago.org/2026/03/03/t...

04.03.2026 15:30 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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As Chicago Loses Another Iconic Neon Sign, Preservationists Sound The Alarm There are about 30 mid-century neon signs remaining in Chicago — but no clear incentives for owners to keep them up when their small businesses close, preservationists said.

blockclubchicago.org/2026/03/04/a...

04.03.2026 15:29 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0