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Ben Applegate

@benapplegate.com

2K followers 1K following 3.3K posts

Director of publishing, editor, translator. Manga, democracy, civil rights, foster kittens, sci-fi, beer. Another world is possible. IDIC 🖖 He/him. Portfolio etc.: benapplegate.com

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 1d

Good to see reporting on this. Visitors to ICE's abductees are totally exposed to weather, including young children and babies, while their loved ones inside Delaney Hall are served partly frozen, old food in a facility with 1,000+ residents and ONE (1) microwave. patch.com/new-jersey/n...

'Inhumane, Unsafe': Visitors To ICE Prison In NJ Forced To Wait Near Metal Fence During Thunderstorm

Visitors to Delaney Hall in Newark say they have endured scorching summer heat and dangerous thunderstorms – just to visit their loved ones.

patch.com

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 33m

They've never heard of Nuremberg

Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 1h

This series reliably makes me cry.

He's so, so good at this.

Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 4h

UNTIL IT’S DONE, Ep. 4: Sylvia Rivera

In the 1970s, queer New Yorkers had been pushed to the margins of NYC. Our trans neighbors faced immense cruelty. But in Sylvia Rivera, they found a champion.

As we combat Trump’s politics of darkness, her legacy can light the path forward.

Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 2h

Happy last day of Banned Book Week! It's fun and educational that we've picked one week out of the year to "ban" books as a reminder of harmful restrictions on free expression that we've thankfully left firmly in the past.

....what's that? WHAT?

......oh dear.

bannedbooksweek.org/let-freedom-...

Let Freedom Read Day | Banned Books Week

bannedbooksweek.org

Reposted by Ben Applegate

Teufelaffe @teufelaffe.bsky.social · 12h

"I'll fight till hell freezes over and then I'll cut the ice and fight on" is metal af

Post by user @jamellebouie.net that reads, "from chandra manning's wonderful book "what this cruel war was over"

Nothing made slavery's toxicity more obvious to Union troops than its effect on the fundamental unit of society, the family. For one thing, slave sales separated families. In the Upper Sout, where many Union soldiers were stationed in 1861, about one in three first marriages was broken by sale, and about half of all slave children were separated from at least one parent. With their own eyes, soldiers saw slavery snap bonds between parents and children. The men of the Seventh Wisconsin were awakened by gunshots one November night. The following day, soldiers "learned, and saw the cause of the alarm in the form of two negro women—a mother and a daughter." The pair had fled to Union lines to avoid the proposed sale of the "goodlooking" daughter into the so-called fancy trade, which soldiers viewed as a form of concubinage. Outraged by the plight and moved by the vulnerability of the mother and daughter, "every private in the ranks" cursed "that system which tramples on the honor of man, and makes merchandise of the virtue of women," according to one member of the regiment. When an Iowan encountered a young child about to be sold by her own father, who was also her master, he vowed, "By G-d I'll fight till hell freezes over and then I'll cut the ice and fight on."

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 12h

Y'all did a great job! Thank you!

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Reposted by Ben Applegate

白浜鴎 @shirahamakamome.bsky.social · 12h

【お知らせ】アメリカの漫画賞・ハーヴェイ賞で『とんがり帽子のアトリエ』が2025年のベストマンガ賞を受賞いたしました！ハーヴェイ賞は4度目のノミネート、同賞は2020年に次いで二度目の受賞となります。とても光栄です。応援してくれている皆さんのおかげです、ありがとうございます！🎊 #Δ帽子

www.comicsbeat.com/nycc-25-pres...

NYCC '25: Presenting the 2025 Harvey Awards winners

Here are all the winners of the 2025 Harvey Awards, presented Friday, October 10 at New York Comic Con 2025.

www.comicsbeat.com

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 21h

😆

Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 1d

If you live in NJ, call your state and federal reps and ask them to DEMAND private prison operator Geo Group adhere to humane standards for ICE's kidnap victims and their families. It's the least these well-paid fascist collaborators can do. And reps should exercise their right to inspect the hall!

Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 1d

'Inhumane, Unsafe': Visitors To ICE Prison In NJ Forced To Wait Near Metal Fence During Thunderstorm

Visitors to Delaney Hall in Newark say they have endured scorching summer heat and dangerous thunderstorms – just to visit their loved ones.

patch.com

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Reposted by Ben Applegate

Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 1d

www.wweek.com/culture/2025...

Can you put into words what that purpose is? You and the frog have really become icons of this protest.

There’s been a nice overall whimsy that has shown up. The frog is amazing. We had a bunch of other inflatable people here last night, too. I saw people playing Twister the other day.

What they rely on is fear. So by coming out in an absurdist manner, it speaks to them, to some extent, that we’re actually not that afraid.

It also dismantles their narrative a little bit. When they try to describe this situation as “war-torn,” it becomes much harder to take them seriously when they have to post a video saying [U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security] Kristi Noem is up on the balcony staring over the Antifa Army and it’s, like, eight journalists and five protesters and one of them is in a chicken suit.

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Reposted by Ben Applegate

Ebil @ebil.bsky.social · 2d

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 1d

Clarifying: I am excited because these cats have become friends with *each other*. The one on the right was already my friend and the one on the left had already decided he doesn't care for me

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Reposted by Ben Applegate

Grant has that Dogsred in him @grantthethief.bsky.social · 1d

Tetsuya Chiba’s art! The flow of the action, the impacts, the sfx lettering, and the expressions have that kinetic oomph you need for selling meaningful fights indistinguishable from a modern boom. But it’s married to the more exaggerated body language + simpler character design ethos of the era.

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 2d

New friends!

A blue foster kitten and a tabby foster kitten are snuggling on a cat tree

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 2d

I know, right? He's totally your type heh

Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 2d

If you're local to NYC/NJ you could take him and/or his sister home: www.petfinder.com/cat/sky-vega...

Adopt Sky & Vega on Petfinder

Sky & Vega is an adoptable Cat - Domestic Short Hair searching for a forever family near Florham Park, NJ. Use Petfinder to find adoptable pets in your area.

www.petfinder.com

Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 2d

🚨🔥Catopia's Next Top Model🔥🚨
The third member of our latest foster menagerie is Skye, with magazine ad good looks, the longest fur we've ever dealt with, and a sweet personality to boot.

A long-haired tabby cat sitting on a scratching post

A long haired tabby cat sitting on a couch

A long-haired tubby cat getting his butt scritched on a couch

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 2d

I'm sure they'll suddenly find their voice to defend the separation of powers again as soon as there's another Democratic president.

Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 2d

There are different types of legitimacy. This court lost its democratic legitimacy when a president who lost the popular vote got to build a supermajority.

Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 2d

Winnie and I both got 100% on this. I think it helps if you go in with the assumption that AI writing sucks ass and human writing doesn't as much

Jessica Price @delafina777.bsky.social · 3d

Hey all, I'm trying to get a baseline for how good people are at detecting whether fiction is AI-generated or human-written (most of the research on this is for nonfiction and my hypothesis is we're better with fiction).

If you have time, give it a try?

jlp-experiment.github.io/ai-detection...

AI vs Human Fiction Detection Test

jlp-experiment.github.io

Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 2d

Upscaling anime produced at 720p to 4k is as bad as watching a movie meant for IMAX on your phone

unhinged eldritch abomination @rhymeswithk.bsky.social · 3d

Friends, #weebwednesday is upon us once again! You know the drill - quote-post with your weebiest hot takes, nothing racist, nothing intentionally inflammatory, have fun with it ♥

a girl in a blue dress is dancing next to a jukebox

Alt: a girl in a blue dress is dancing next to a jukebox

media.tenor.com

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 3d

She was saying "this is an accessible station". Also important

Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 3d

Just thought I heard the subway lady say "this is an acceptable spaceship" and thought yeah, we all felt that way about the Enterprise-E design, it wasn't just you

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 3d

Let's get Blessing and her family over $4k this morning!

Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 5d

I've met Blessing a few times outside Delaney Hall, where her husband, a home health worker, has been held for months. Her baby Princess is the sweetest—loves being held and grabbing stuff off my snack tray.

This is a VERIFIED call to help a family suffering under ICE terror. gofund.me/02fea4ec8

Donate to Open your heart for this family, organized by Bernard Rous

My name is Blessing Nickerson, and I am a US citizen. My husband is a very gentle, kind h… Bernard Rous needs your support for Open your heart for this family

gofund.me

Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 3d

Hahahahaaaa
Good things can still exist in this world

Isaiah D. Colbert @shineyezehuhh.bsky.social · 3d

Makoto Yukimura was worried that Vinland Saga's farming arc and "I have no enemies" moment was a gamble that readers wouldn't like. I told him about the J. Cole meme from the Kendrick Lamar and Drake rap beef. This is how he reacted.

If “I have no enemies” has become a meme and people remember it, then maybe people will understand what I’m really trying to say through the story, which is that humans are immature, but we can mature. To become mature is to become kind. This is the foundation of what I’m trying to say, but it really has to be much shorter for people to remember. But it does give me hope that people remember these short phrases as memes. Then, one day, it will click in their mind what I was trying to really say in the first place.