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Ben Steele @bensteele.bsky.social · 14h

!

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Ben Steele @bensteele.bsky.social · 14h

No, because that's Muy Caliente

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Ben Steele @bensteele.bsky.social · 14h

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

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Ben Steele @bensteele.bsky.social · 14h

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 · 14h

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

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Ben Steele @bensteele.bsky.social · 14h

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

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Ben Steele @bensteele.bsky.social · 15h

Oh. I see. Bathhouse day at the gym?

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Ben Steele @bensteele.bsky.social · 17h

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."

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Ben Steele @bensteele.bsky.social · 18h

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 · 18h

why lean into the christofascism halfway.

Dave Jorgenson @davejorgenson.bsky.social · 1d

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

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Reposted by Ben Steele

Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 1d

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 · 1d

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

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

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Ben Steele @bensteele.bsky.social · 1d

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

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Reposted by Ben Steele

Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 1d

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.

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Ben Steele @bensteele.bsky.social · 1d

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 · 1d

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.

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Ben Steele @bensteele.bsky.social · 1d

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.

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Ben Steele @bensteele.bsky.social · 1d

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 · 1d

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.

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Reposted by Ben Steele

lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · 2d

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

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Ben Steele @bensteele.bsky.social · 2d

Tap off hasn't been required since the shift to $3 flat fares. There were a few "You don't need to go this anymore" posts but if you do it I think it just assumes it as a transfer.

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Ben Steele @bensteele.bsky.social · 2d

Oh thank god it's real and I wasn't dying when I pulled out my comforter at 2a.m.

Scott Sistek @scottseattlewx.bsky.social · 2d

Seattle dropped to 46 degrees this morning --- the first time we've dropped below 50 since mid-June and coldest low since May 18. #wawx

MORE in my NEW Seattle Weather Blog!
Check out the Emerald City Weather Blog: emeraldcityweather.com/its-time-to-...

It’s time to say ‘Bye, Bye, Bye’ to the nighttime 50s - Emerald City Weather Blog

Sibling rivalries strike again here in my blog this weekend, only this time I’m talking about the high

emeraldcityweather.com

Ben Steele @bensteele.bsky.social · 2d

——so, having to show your HIV status again under new rules, for example
vs. one I loved (above from TX, this from WA):
—Medicaid applicants immediately were sent SNAP enrollment info. It still wasn't a guarantee, but by knowing that one likely meant eligibility for the other, the state sped access.

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Ben Steele @bensteele.bsky.social · 2d

A few bad things I have seen in the means-testing arenas:
— Individual agencies (NGO) having to verify eligibility for programs like Ryan White, opposed to central eligibility that makes it like insurance.
— Three years out of services mean recertifying demographic/health factors that don't change.

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Ben Steele @bensteele.bsky.social · 2d

You leave out the other side: the people who *do~ live in affected cities blame local electeds for state decisions, too. It all makes cities look like the problem when it's actually the rotten bouroughs that are causing our urban problems.

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Ben Steele @bensteele.bsky.social · 2d

Means testing programs force people on the lower end of the spectrum to constantly restate everything they own while there is massive tax evasion on the other end of the income and wealth spectrum. Congress and state governments must be held to account for this by us.

🎃Kristen “Crypt Keeper” Lopez🎃 @kristenklopez.bsky.social · 2d

Got the notice that starting January 1 I'll have to report all my assets, and live under a threshold, in order to keep my Medi-Cal. Real nice move, @gavinnewsom.bsky.social.

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Ben Steele @bensteele.bsky.social · 2d

Oh I didn't know I grew up under one of my favorite things to hate on. Here revenue from property taxes may not grow by more than 1%. What's the limit in my Hoosier homeland? dor.wa.gov/forms-public...

Property tax - How the 1% property tax levy limit works | Washington Department of Revenue

dor.wa.gov

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