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Ben Steele

@bensteele.bsky.social

660 followers 860 following 2.9K posts

Seattleite, mentally ill, just wanting to make the world a little better.

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Ben Steele @bensteele.bsky.social · 20h

I described a friend as moving past the end of the world to my brother, who lives in the bad Vancouver.
"What, do they live in Renton now?"
"Beacon Hill."

Ben Steele @bensteele.bsky.social · 1d

*screaming~ Mayor Harrell wants us to believe being an executive director of a major philanthropy org is the same as doing direct client-facing work. Having gone to school kind of for the former (big part of MPA cohorts do that) and been the latter, this man lives in irreality.

Erica C. Barnett @ericacbarnett.bsky.social · 1d

"My wife worked in this field as well," Harrell continues. His wife was the CEO of the United Way, for context.

Reposted by Ben Steele

Asha Rangappa @asharangappa.bsky.social · 2d

As I observed in my Substack Round Up this past week, the endgame of the military strikes against drug cartels in international waters is to lay the groundwork to use lethal military force against Americans at home. Pay attention open.substack.com/pub/asharang...

Ben Steele @bensteele.bsky.social · 1d

(Honestly shout-out to my parents for surviving the summer where all my comms were Google Translated for them and vice versa. An incredible feat that nothing went wrong up until a death in the family broke the Spanish-only requirement.)

Ben Steele @bensteele.bsky.social · 1d

I did try a page in 2012 Google Translate, for the record, since I was a unique and special snowflake that year having to make a second edition of my paper for her.

It was bad. Like, afterwards telling your Dad you can't believe you managed to conduct financial transactions via GT that summer bad.

Ben Steele @bensteele.bsky.social · 1d

(These and other classical IB problems where your senior English teacher has to grade them all but they are all specialized [and actually graded] in other sections of the curriculum from Spanish to political theory to environmental science.)

Ben Steele @bensteele.bsky.social · 1d

I think I took four hours to translate my 15 page Spanish paper into English including uh ... A very unrealistic translation of the Spanish constitution I have almost asked one of the graders for her thoughts on since that has shaped my feelings on religious textual translation ever since.

Dane 🔜 NYCC AA L-34 @monkeyminion.com · 2d

I wrote a 15 page report on heraldic symbolism in medieval armor and weapon design for my art history class the night before it was due (8am class). Made up 90% of it (only found one book for reference) and got an A. GenAI could fucking never.

wrote 20 pages on Faulkner's The Bear four hours before final papers were due on trucker pills and coffee and cigarettes and got an A, fuck you.
You people couldn't hang with real slackers.
finn
wokeupchic • 4d
It's fuck Al till your homework due in 25 minutes

Ben Steele @bensteele.bsky.social · 2d

!

Ben Steele @bensteele.bsky.social · 2d

No, because that's Muy Caliente

Ben Steele @bensteele.bsky.social · 2d

Ma'am you are spending $80 a month to throw away Spice Bliss.

Ben Steele @bensteele.bsky.social · 2d

I only indirectly publicly slander people I see regularly for their inability to post in Spanish in the second largest Spanish speaking population country on Earth.

Ben Steele @bensteele.bsky.social · 2d

Okay, you can't double hate in our chat too if you don't come with me.

Ben Steele @bensteele.bsky.social · 2d

It's either the pup knowing what he's doing or the one who gave us the tour. There's no in-between.

Ben Steele @bensteele.bsky.social · 2d

Oh. I see. Bathhouse day at the gym?

Ben Steele @bensteele.bsky.social · 2d

Love to send an email like "Oh, hi, sorry I missed this volunteer meeting. My main calendar is available on the table next to me but if I even look at it too long I will get fired instead of furloughed."

Ben Steele @bensteele.bsky.social · 2d

Which committee, and is that the one who was already restaffed with cranks thus removing the cranks or is it a new committee that was not full of cranks getting crankified?

Reposted by Ben Steele

Noah Berlatsky @nberlat.bsky.social · 2d

why lean into the christofascism halfway.

Dave Jorgenson @davejorgenson.bsky.social · 3d

The Post laid off seemingly the remaining of their liberal-leaning staff members on Opinion last Thursday, when some of them were observing Yom Kippur.

from @oliverdarcy.bsky.social for Status
status.news/p/washington-post-opinion-cuts-adam-oneal

Reposted by Ben Steele

Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 3d

I can't stop thinking about this. We're pursuing zero fire risk in multifam, while tolerating much more in single-fam. People respond by building and living in single-fam, where they're exposed to not only one of the highest fire death risks in the developed world, but also TONS more car crash risk

Emily Hamilton @ebwhamilton.bsky.social · 3d

Love this new report on buildings' relative fire safety from @alexhrwtz.bsky.social and Pew colleagues.

www.pew.org/en/research-...

Ben Steele @bensteele.bsky.social · 3d

I have always loved the beautiful face of a barn owl. I think I'd heard they were traditionally a little spooky and never got it. Maybe the faces were a little ghostly?

Just heard their song for the first time on Merlin tonight. Anyways, eating my words. merlinbirds.org/species/brnowl

Check out this bird - American Barn Owl

Merlin Bird ID is a free app that helps you find more birds.

merlinbirds.org

Reposted by Ben Steele

Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 3d

Gonna be thinking about this lede for a minute.

(RNS) — Last month, the Rev. David Black stood in front of a Chicago-area U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility and spread his arms wide. Adorned in all black and wearing a clerical collar, the pastor looked up at a group of masked, heavily armed ICE agents on the roof and began to pray.

“I invited them to repentance,” Black, a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), said in an interview. “I basically offered an altar call. I invited them to come and receive that salvation, and be part of the kingdom that is coming.”

But when Black began to lower his arms a few seconds later, the agents responded to his spiritual plea by firing pepper balls, or chemical agents that cause eye irritation and respiratory distress, video footage shows. One struck Black in the head, exploding into a puff of white pepper smoke and forcing him to his knees. Fellow demonstrators rushed to his aid, and as the pastor rubbed his face in pain, the agents continued to fire.

“We could hear them laughing,” Black said.

Ben Steele @bensteele.bsky.social · 3d

I did put myself in the phone queue as I worked through and got a call back after about 45 minutes, + the half hour I stayed on the line while working through the online portal on my own.

Ben Steele @bensteele.bsky.social · 3d

If you're looking here for assistance, main things I've learned are that 1) we don't mark for standby and if you can't find your specific agency in the drop-downs, they will be able to correct from your uploaded documents, so don't panic at the employer page.

Ben Steele @bensteele.bsky.social · 3d

To my fellow #furlough #furloughed workers in Washington state, unemployment services through the Economic Security Department is a little clunky but I did upload all my E&L statements and my SF-50s in about 45 minutes and am getting a call now to assist. It's been kind and efficient.

Ben Steele @bensteele.bsky.social · 3d

So little of my cohort of workers is left at my former employer in Austin. The trans providers have fled the state. The parents of trans kids have fled the state.

What we built, giving out no-cost STI care and gender affirming care is so fragile.

Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 3d

In a press release, Texas Attorney General calls "transgenderism" a "corrupted ideology" that is "a cancer on our culture."

This is openly genocidal rhetoric about trans people from a sitting AG.

A press release dated October 7, 2025, with the headline: “Attorney General Ken Paxton Launches Undercover Operations to Infiltrate and Uproot Leftist Terror Cells in Texas After Increased Political Violence.” The statement claims rising left-wing violence, referencing the assassination of Charlie Kirk, and outlines Paxton’s directive for undercover investigations. A highlighted quote from Paxton reads: “Leftist political terrorism is a clear and present danger. Corrupted ideologies like transgenderism and Antifa are a cancer on our culture and have unleashed their deranged and drugged-up foot soldiers on the American people.” The text further accuses the radical Left of fostering political violence, referencing incidents involving Antifa-like groups and a supposed assassin tied to transgender movements. It also notes that President Trump designated Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization, with Paxton vowing sweeping investigations into radical leftist groups.

Reposted by Ben Steele

lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · 4d

John Stuart Mill failed to consider that creepy loser men would not react well to other people's liberty.