sascha benjamin cohen
@saschaben.bsky.social
"'In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart, or oh so pleasant.' Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant.
You may quote me."
- Elwood P. Dowd
Baker of Bread. Brewer of Beer.
Altogether awkward but not entirely unpleasant person.
You may quote me."
- Elwood P. Dowd
Baker of Bread. Brewer of Beer.
Altogether awkward but not entirely unpleasant person.
Pinned
Sascha Benjamin Cohen: books, biography, latest update
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Poetry, you say? Odd short fiction, you say? Snarky humor, you say? Serious work on religious and biblical narrative, you say?
Why yes, I've written some stuff like that...
www.amazon.com/stores/Sasch...
Why yes, I've written some stuff like that...
www.amazon.com/stores/Sasch...
as a big bald dude, I remain resentful that “big bald dude” is universal shorthand for “evil henchman” in pretty much every film, show, or story.
I'm supposed to be the hero, dammit.
or at the very least the goofy sidekick.
I'm supposed to be the hero, dammit.
or at the very least the goofy sidekick.
November 26, 2025 at 3:33 AM
as a big bald dude, I remain resentful that “big bald dude” is universal shorthand for “evil henchman” in pretty much every film, show, or story.
I'm supposed to be the hero, dammit.
or at the very least the goofy sidekick.
I'm supposed to be the hero, dammit.
or at the very least the goofy sidekick.
So I'm cooking for a small thanksgiving gathering. We've chosen to not do it at my tiny (not really dog-friendly) place, for reasons this sentence & its parenthetical should make clear.
But it just hit me that I need to haul my entire pantry up the road. *Then* cook all day.
What was I thinking?
But it just hit me that I need to haul my entire pantry up the road. *Then* cook all day.
What was I thinking?
November 26, 2025 at 12:56 AM
So I'm cooking for a small thanksgiving gathering. We've chosen to not do it at my tiny (not really dog-friendly) place, for reasons this sentence & its parenthetical should make clear.
But it just hit me that I need to haul my entire pantry up the road. *Then* cook all day.
What was I thinking?
But it just hit me that I need to haul my entire pantry up the road. *Then* cook all day.
What was I thinking?
It's even sadder that anyone should need to take that position.
It’s sad that “soldiers shouldn’t commit crimes” is a brave position for a Republican to take.
Republican senator now publicly defending Mark Kelly
November 26, 2025 at 12:49 AM
It's even sadder that anyone should need to take that position.
O goody. A letter from someone who misunderstood their own education, believes that setting up and knocking down a strawman argument is an effective debate strategy, and that the commodification of education and critical thinking to better supply the marketplace is why academia exists.
It’s time to stop worshipping the liberal arts | Letters
It’s time to stop worshipping the liberal arts | Letters
Letters: While such institutions have intrinsic value, that doesn’t mean they are entitled to be socially favoured or economically exceptional for ever, says Jianyang Geng
www.theguardian.com
November 25, 2025 at 5:49 PM
O goody. A letter from someone who misunderstood their own education, believes that setting up and knocking down a strawman argument is an effective debate strategy, and that the commodification of education and critical thinking to better supply the marketplace is why academia exists.
I hope the person involved recovers completely, and the accident itself is tragic, but - this is such a UCSC story, it sort of warms my heart that after all these years young fools are *still* getting stuck in trees at my alma mater.
Tree rescue near UC Santa Cruz turns critical after man falls 80 feet
"Small mistakes can become life-threatening emergencies," a fire official said.
www.sfgate.com
November 25, 2025 at 5:41 PM
I hope the person involved recovers completely, and the accident itself is tragic, but - this is such a UCSC story, it sort of warms my heart that after all these years young fools are *still* getting stuck in trees at my alma mater.
Reposted by sascha benjamin cohen
NEWS --> BBC confirms to me that they did edit a line out of historian @rutgerbregman.com's speech. It called Trump "the most openly corrupt president in US history."
BBC also confirms this was done on the advice of lawyers. So Trump's threats worked.
New piece:
newrepublic.com/article/2036...
BBC also confirms this was done on the advice of lawyers. So Trump's threats worked.
New piece:
newrepublic.com/article/2036...
Trump’s Fury at BBC Gets Unnerving Results with Pro-MAGA Edit Stunner
First, British Broadcasting Corporation execs resigned after Trump complained about a segment. Now the BBC edited out a line from a historian that was critical of Trump. Where does this end?
newrepublic.com
November 25, 2025 at 4:10 PM
NEWS --> BBC confirms to me that they did edit a line out of historian @rutgerbregman.com's speech. It called Trump "the most openly corrupt president in US history."
BBC also confirms this was done on the advice of lawyers. So Trump's threats worked.
New piece:
newrepublic.com/article/2036...
BBC also confirms this was done on the advice of lawyers. So Trump's threats worked.
New piece:
newrepublic.com/article/2036...
Reposted by sascha benjamin cohen
I'm convinced so much of cybersecurity and IT is merely a power fantasy. That you will finally be able to impose your adjudication of what people want. And will go to anything to achieve completely unsupervised.
How well is that working out for them?
How well is that working out for them?
November 25, 2025 at 4:34 PM
I'm convinced so much of cybersecurity and IT is merely a power fantasy. That you will finally be able to impose your adjudication of what people want. And will go to anything to achieve completely unsupervised.
How well is that working out for them?
How well is that working out for them?
Reposted by sascha benjamin cohen
This is not a plan for peace. It is a plan for Russian victory and Ukrainian capitulation, argues Christian Caryl.
Don’t Call This a ‘Peace Plan’
If the U.S.-Russia plan for Ukraine goes forward, Donald Trump will be remembered as the Neville Chamberlain of the 21st century.
foreignpolicy.com
November 25, 2025 at 2:30 PM
This is not a plan for peace. It is a plan for Russian victory and Ukrainian capitulation, argues Christian Caryl.
According to The Economist, “China is now making more money from exporting green technology than America makes from exporting fossil fuels.” (www.economist.com/leaders/2025...)
so much for ”america first”, eh boss?
Not just a historic cop-out, but a geopolitical failure of the highest order.
so much for ”america first”, eh boss?
Not just a historic cop-out, but a geopolitical failure of the highest order.
US, Russia and Saudi Arabia create axis of obstruction as Cop30 sputters out
Trump puts US in unflattering company as lack of representative at climate talks reveals disdain for climate progress
www.theguardian.com
November 25, 2025 at 2:32 PM
According to The Economist, “China is now making more money from exporting green technology than America makes from exporting fossil fuels.” (www.economist.com/leaders/2025...)
so much for ”america first”, eh boss?
Not just a historic cop-out, but a geopolitical failure of the highest order.
so much for ”america first”, eh boss?
Not just a historic cop-out, but a geopolitical failure of the highest order.
someday, perhaps, we'll get back to a political moment where the goal is winning in order to achieve agenda goals that make things better for a majority of people, rather than the goal being...just winning, in order to win more.
I know it can never last, but it's the sort of interregnum I prefer.
I know it can never last, but it's the sort of interregnum I prefer.
November 25, 2025 at 1:49 PM
someday, perhaps, we'll get back to a political moment where the goal is winning in order to achieve agenda goals that make things better for a majority of people, rather than the goal being...just winning, in order to win more.
I know it can never last, but it's the sort of interregnum I prefer.
I know it can never last, but it's the sort of interregnum I prefer.
I would agree with much of this in a world where we have universal health care, child care, food security, and affordable housing as a baseline.
but we don't.
more: any govt disparaging a minimum wage floor is denying its population a sense of the dignity of work, and is thus nurturing revolution
but we don't.
more: any govt disparaging a minimum wage floor is denying its population a sense of the dignity of work, and is thus nurturing revolution
“There is a growing body of economic literature which finds that minimum wages have hidden costs.” Callum Williams describes the distortions, on “The Intelligence”
Wage against the machine: the distortions of minimum pay
Also on the daily podcast: the costs of getting AI to write a cover letter and Florida’s radical education experiment
econ.st
November 25, 2025 at 1:41 PM
I would agree with much of this in a world where we have universal health care, child care, food security, and affordable housing as a baseline.
but we don't.
more: any govt disparaging a minimum wage floor is denying its population a sense of the dignity of work, and is thus nurturing revolution
but we don't.
more: any govt disparaging a minimum wage floor is denying its population a sense of the dignity of work, and is thus nurturing revolution
November 25, 2025 at 4:22 AM
JD Vance said today that Americans "get crap health care" & I find it remarkable that the entire medical profession isn't in an uproar.
We pay far too much for care.
We have serious issues accessing that care.
The care provided once accessed tends to be remarkably good.
All hail our MDs & nurses!
We pay far too much for care.
We have serious issues accessing that care.
The care provided once accessed tends to be remarkably good.
All hail our MDs & nurses!
November 25, 2025 at 1:00 AM
JD Vance said today that Americans "get crap health care" & I find it remarkable that the entire medical profession isn't in an uproar.
We pay far too much for care.
We have serious issues accessing that care.
The care provided once accessed tends to be remarkably good.
All hail our MDs & nurses!
We pay far too much for care.
We have serious issues accessing that care.
The care provided once accessed tends to be remarkably good.
All hail our MDs & nurses!
Reposted by sascha benjamin cohen
We will ensure the ill-gotten financial gains, built on fraud and hype, are removed from Sacks and put in the public purse.
And Musk. And Andreessen, and Altman, and Thiel.
Every billionaire is a policy failure.
And Musk. And Andreessen, and Altman, and Thiel.
Every billionaire is a policy failure.
November 24, 2025 at 10:54 PM
We will ensure the ill-gotten financial gains, built on fraud and hype, are removed from Sacks and put in the public purse.
And Musk. And Andreessen, and Altman, and Thiel.
Every billionaire is a policy failure.
And Musk. And Andreessen, and Altman, and Thiel.
Every billionaire is a policy failure.
it took him 12 years (at least) of misguided denialism, but he finally got there.
November 24, 2025 at 7:24 PM
it took him 12 years (at least) of misguided denialism, but he finally got there.
Reposted by sascha benjamin cohen
I get why people are excited about Waymos. I really do.
But, I think we can also look back at the effects of a century of enthusiasm for cars and say, “Going all in for cars hasn’t worked out well at all.” And from that, try to see what the next century holds, and try to do better *now*.
But, I think we can also look back at the effects of a century of enthusiasm for cars and say, “Going all in for cars hasn’t worked out well at all.” And from that, try to see what the next century holds, and try to do better *now*.
Waymo privatized another public street:
Chanel approaching 4th, San Francisco
Possibly queued for a Billie Eilish show at Chase Center ~half mile away.
The light rail train on 4th seen passing in front of this roboherd has more passenger capacity than all of them combined.
OP: .tiktok.renaspam18
Chanel approaching 4th, San Francisco
Possibly queued for a Billie Eilish show at Chase Center ~half mile away.
The light rail train on 4th seen passing in front of this roboherd has more passenger capacity than all of them combined.
OP: .tiktok.renaspam18
November 24, 2025 at 5:51 PM
I get why people are excited about Waymos. I really do.
But, I think we can also look back at the effects of a century of enthusiasm for cars and say, “Going all in for cars hasn’t worked out well at all.” And from that, try to see what the next century holds, and try to do better *now*.
But, I think we can also look back at the effects of a century of enthusiasm for cars and say, “Going all in for cars hasn’t worked out well at all.” And from that, try to see what the next century holds, and try to do better *now*.
Reposted by sascha benjamin cohen
If there's one thing the mainstream news media love to overlook, it's the impact of the mainstream news media. The petite Tea Party in all its elite-backed astroturfiness was hailed like a sacred comet; the historically huge No Kings was played down by the NY Times, among other publications.
November 24, 2025 at 3:53 PM
If there's one thing the mainstream news media love to overlook, it's the impact of the mainstream news media. The petite Tea Party in all its elite-backed astroturfiness was hailed like a sacred comet; the historically huge No Kings was played down by the NY Times, among other publications.
Reposted by sascha benjamin cohen
DOGE was always a very thinly disguised con to dress up data theft and extraction class destruction of federal corporate oversight as innovative, and it's important to remember that part of the reason it worked so well is that the press helped legitimize it
hey don't be so hard on yourselves; it delivered oceans of sensitive government and citizen data to billionaires
Musk’s DOGE Quietly Killed Off After Delivering Almost Nothing
The agency disbanded eight months ahead of schedule.
www.thedailybeast.com
November 24, 2025 at 2:42 PM
DOGE was always a very thinly disguised con to dress up data theft and extraction class destruction of federal corporate oversight as innovative, and it's important to remember that part of the reason it worked so well is that the press helped legitimize it
“The document was drawn up by Kirill Dmitriev…together with Trump’s special representative, Steve Witkoff. Speculation based on the use of language in the plan suggests it may have been written in Russian and later translated into English.”
Surprised Witkoff didn't just leave it in the original.
Surprised Witkoff didn't just leave it in the original.
European countries propose radically different Ukraine peace plan to US
Document omits some of Washington’s pro-Russia points and calls for Kyiv’s sovereignty to be respected
www.theguardian.com
November 23, 2025 at 10:15 PM
“The document was drawn up by Kirill Dmitriev…together with Trump’s special representative, Steve Witkoff. Speculation based on the use of language in the plan suggests it may have been written in Russian and later translated into English.”
Surprised Witkoff didn't just leave it in the original.
Surprised Witkoff didn't just leave it in the original.
Reposted by sascha benjamin cohen
West Point is committing "a crime of serious proportion" then.
November 23, 2025 at 4:56 PM
West Point is committing "a crime of serious proportion" then.
November 23, 2025 at 4:04 PM
Rubio had fallen on his sword so many times in the last year trying to square the circle of his boss’s insanities and contradictions that he's just a sieve.
not that he ever had much, but whatever self-esteem he may have had once surely has leaked out on the white house floor by now.
not that he ever had much, but whatever self-esteem he may have had once surely has leaked out on the white house floor by now.
Rubio Insists U.S. Authored the Ukraine Peace Plan
www.nytimes.com
November 23, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Rubio had fallen on his sword so many times in the last year trying to square the circle of his boss’s insanities and contradictions that he's just a sieve.
not that he ever had much, but whatever self-esteem he may have had once surely has leaked out on the white house floor by now.
not that he ever had much, but whatever self-esteem he may have had once surely has leaked out on the white house floor by now.
I've been waiting for this day
November 23, 2025 at 2:21 PM
I've been waiting for this day
Reposted by sascha benjamin cohen
I think the shortest version of why LLMs are an anti education technology is that education is fundamentally about making shared context to understand ourselves, each other, and the world
And by design LLMs destroy shared context
And by design LLMs destroy shared context
November 23, 2025 at 12:57 PM
I think the shortest version of why LLMs are an anti education technology is that education is fundamentally about making shared context to understand ourselves, each other, and the world
And by design LLMs destroy shared context
And by design LLMs destroy shared context
“It turns out that managing keys and managing secret keys is the hardest part of this” is just techspeak for ”you cannot solve for human error and there is *always* human error” & honestly, despite the irony of this particular situation it is denial of this that wastes most $ in enterprise security.
November 23, 2025 at 1:11 AM
“It turns out that managing keys and managing secret keys is the hardest part of this” is just techspeak for ”you cannot solve for human error and there is *always* human error” & honestly, despite the irony of this particular situation it is denial of this that wastes most $ in enterprise security.