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sascha benjamin cohen

@saschaben.bsky.social

630 followers 930 following 5.4K posts

"'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.

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sascha benjamin cohen @saschaben.bsky.social · Oct 21

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...

Sascha Benjamin Cohen: books, biography, latest update

Follow Sascha Benjamin Cohen and explore their bibliography from Amazon.com's Sascha Benjamin Cohen Author Page.

www.amazon.com

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David Rothkopf @djrothkopf.bsky.social · 9h

We should all be happy for any progress toward a cessation of hostilities in Gaza and especially for the release of the surviving hostages. That said: editors and writers need to be clear a temporary ceasefire is not a "peace" deal. What we're talking about is phase one of a multiphase plan.

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Kieran Healy @kjhealy.co · 9h

Maybe beginning to feel news coverage that either ignores this sort of blather or balances it with a polite “Some experts disagree with the assessment that Portland is a burned-out hellscape under the rule of Antifa warlords” doesn’t really cut it.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 12h

Trump: "I don't know what could be worse than Portland. You don't even have stores anymore. They don't even put glass up. They put plywood on their windows."

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sascha benjamin cohen @saschaben.bsky.social · 9h

This may make the CA gubernatorial race a bit more interesting...

'I don't want to keep doing this': Katie Porter almost walks out of interview

Gubernatorial candidate Katie Porter got testy during a CBS News interview.

www.sfgate.com

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Emissary Of Night | ليلى @diplomatofnight.com · 10h

DropSite receives confirmation that Hamas has agreed to a finalized version of the ceasefire framework and is prepared to sign it tonight

BREAKING: Hamas and Palestinian Factions Agree to Gaza Ceasefire Framework

“From our side, yes,” a senior Hamas official told Drop Site News.

www.dropsitenews.com

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Eli Valley @elivalley.bsky.social · 11h

More history from this Nazi adulated by the Trump team. These are explicit, proud Nazis who scream and cry and call every referee they can find when you quote their Nazism back to them.

Multiple tweets from Nazi Jack Posobiec in 2016 making "jokes" involving the Nazi code "1488."

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Brendan Davey @brendandavey.bsky.social · 14h

No one who calls themselves an academic should ever fold to a "loyalty oath," no matter what vague risks to funding they might face. It goes against everything higher education and academic freedom stands for.

Please, #AcademicSky, and any other educator, worker, student, alum, etc., sign on.

🗃️

University Administrations: Reject Trump's "Loyalty Oath" Compacts

The Trump administration is trying to blackmail schools to let him and his unqualified bureaucrats run our schools. They want to dictate what schools teach, who they admit and hire, what researchers s...

actionnetwork.org

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sascha benjamin cohen @saschaben.bsky.social · 10h

I feel like - even leaving aside Trump and a rising tide of fascism - this was an inevitable end of the GWOT by-product of militarizing domestic police, and the (re)glorification of a post-vietnam, all guts & glory image of the military...

sascha benjamin cohen @saschaben.bsky.social · 10h

yes. Although to be fair we have had some batshit crazy folks in the cabinet in the past 50 years, although not at the current breadth or magnitude. A lot of radioactive guano in the brain trust right now.

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Gretchen Felker-Martin 🍉 @scumbelievable.bsky.social · 12h

I don't like him personally, but David Simon on AI is the final word on the subject.

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sascha benjamin cohen @saschaben.bsky.social · 10h

So it goes. But I have always wondered: what happens when he finally clears the room out, and there is no pony - just the stink of useless effort?

sascha benjamin cohen @saschaben.bsky.social · 10h

My mom used to tell the parable of the boy who is punished with having to shovel out a room full of shit. And he never stops smiling as he shovels. His captor asks, "you're stuck in a room full of shit, why are you happy?" He replies, "with all this shit, there has to be a pony in here somewhere!"

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sascha benjamin cohen @saschaben.bsky.social · 11h

I'm old. I've lived through decent presidents, terrible presidents, crooked presidents, bland presidents, warmongering presidents, and here and there the glimmerings of a statesman.

Never before have I watched as we endure a truly unhinged, utterly-detached-from-reality president.

#MadKing

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Tyler King @tyleraking.com · 12h

The literal reading of this statement is Pam Bondi is planning extrajudicial executions of random protesters.

Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 12h

My gosh. After the US bombed multiple boats in the middle of the ocean, murdering people on grounds that they were allegedly "carrying drugs," the US Attorney General says "Just like we did with cartels, we're going to take the same approach, President Trump, with Antifa."

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Dr. Damien P. Williams Wants A Better Sociotechnical Paradigm @wolvendamien.bsky.social · 12h

The current paradigm of "AI"— all of its, e.g., embedded values, design, cultural deployment, & structural affordances— has been repeatedly demonstrated to harm both critical skills development & the structure & maintenance of the relational social fabric.

That sounds pretty anti-pedagogical, to me

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 17h

“One of the negative consequences AI is having on students is that it is hurting their ability to develop meaningful relationships with teachers, the report finds. Half of the students agree that using AI in class makes them feel less connected to their teachers.”

Rising Use of AI in Schools Comes With Big Downsides for Students

A report by the Center for Democracy and Technology looks at teachers' and students' experiences with the technology.

www.edweek.org

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sascha benjamin cohen @saschaben.bsky.social · 12h

Just gonna keep reposting this each time I see it anew.

The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 18h

And now for a report from the hellish, war-zone that is Portland

sascha benjamin cohen @saschaben.bsky.social · 12h

So...firing on innocents for the photo op and claiming victory? Heat seeking missiles into Powell's Books?

God I'm so tired.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 12h

Bondi: "Bondi: "Just like we did with cartels, we are going to take the same approach, President Trump, with antifa -- destroy the entire organization from top to bottom. We are going to take them apart."

sascha benjamin cohen @saschaben.bsky.social · 12h

I have never owned a nonstick pan.

I find the arguments for nonstick kitchen tools (and PFAs generally) quite terribly similar to the arguments as to why we should endure / embrace / subsume ourselves to generative AI.

Opinion | Relax, America, There Is Life After Nonstick Pans

www.nytimes.com

sascha benjamin cohen @saschaben.bsky.social · 13h

Well you know those frogs are trouble...maybe they could muster an actual argument against the godzilla. But that would get neutered by the unicorn. And then we're just back to twerking frogs.

sascha benjamin cohen @saschaben.bsky.social · 13h

In every generation there are tyrants, and apologists for those tyrants; complicit quisling courtiers; gleeful bullies freed from the constraints of decency; and willing fools who think they remain above the fray, only to further the tyrant's interests.

"I could name names. I could be indiscreet."

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Eli Valley @elivalley.bsky.social · 1d

Bari Weiss, CBS News, 1965

- New art in @jewishcurrents.bsky.social
jewishcurrents.org/bari-weiss-c...

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sascha benjamin cohen @saschaben.bsky.social · 13h

Dolly Parton: our real world, kinder gentler version of Granny Weatherwax.

The Guardian @theguardian.com · 13h

Dolly Parton addresses health concerns in new video: ‘I ain’t dead yet!’

Country music star shares buoyant video on social media after rumors swirl about her health Dolly Parton has taken to social media to clarify she “ain’t dead yet!” In a post shared on her Instagram and YouTube channel, the country music star rejected rumors of ill health that swirled after the postponement of her Las Vegas residency and a cryptic post from her sister asking for “prayers”. Continue reading...

www.theguardian.com

sascha benjamin cohen @saschaben.bsky.social · 13h

No words.
No notes.

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 21h

#WarRavagedPortland

sascha benjamin cohen @saschaben.bsky.social · 14h

Speaker Johnson today reinforced the opinion that he is a spineless toady lickspittle.

sascha benjamin cohen @saschaben.bsky.social · 14h

Great thread. If you are curious how war propaganda works, read on.

Jack Sapoch @jacksapoch.bsky.social · 15h

NEW: Since October 2023, the IDF Spokesperson's Unit has released dozens of 3D animations illustrating alleged Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iranian sites

The style is now unmistakable: satellite zoom-ins, black & white wireframes, and red-textured houses - a new visual language of war

sascha benjamin cohen @saschaben.bsky.social · 14h

"...despite the supergenius that is apparently needed to build these tools, none of these supergeniuses can tell a compelling story to everyone else beyond, “It’s Ask Jeeves, but 30 years later."

Ben Recht @beenwrekt.bsky.social · 18h

OpenAI’s new recursive nostalgia ads corroborate @himself.bsky.social's theory of Philip K Dick and AI.

Henry Was Right

OpenAI selling the world as a mumblecore adaptation of Philip K Dick