sascha benjamin cohen

Trump Higher Ed Compact 2025 We stand for education—for science, for students and for freedom—and against this backward, anti-American policy. We call on university leaders, faculty, staff and students to unite in rejecting the T...

Sometimes, we are required to move beyond risk aversion and conservative approaches to protecting and supporting our communities. Sometimes, the safe choice is not the right one.

Media are reporting that Trump stated (re paying furloughed fed workers) "some of them [US citizens&workers] don't deserve to be taken care of" but no one is commenting how he then followed with the threat "maybe we'll 'take care' of them in a different way.'

By god he is mob bossing so hard today.

Sincerely wondering if SCOTUS comprehends that the denigration of expertise in favor of bothesidesism and the fact-free presumption of value in position inexorably leads along a path to their own insignificance.

I think many if not most of them would openly agree with that last sentence.

Dems play a game of policy within a context of "Leadership = good policy" however disingenuous or poll driven they might be. Republicans play an aggressive game of capture the flag within the context of "Leadership = Power". And Dems keep thinking they are all in the same game, on the same board.

Yes - prior to that display, there was still a certain level of decorum & propriety, even when the worst were under pressure. Oliver North, Spiro Agnew...Maybe the closest you get in the pre-Trump/Post-Nixon era would be Gingrinch, and even he had a sense of gravity abt how to act as a public figure

The political right's greatest project is discrediting experts. Only in a "do your own research" world can their cultural preferences - anti-abortion, anti-gender affirming care - claim equal legitimacy to the left's medically-backed positions on those issues. SCOTUS is a full partner in that effort

The sun is shining:
warm breeze, the water sparkles
why, then, do I grieve?

#haiku
#poetry

So very tired of hearing statements made to people in power which flatly declare facts of past or present action to which the response is now inevitably "How dare you! How disgusting that you impugn me!" followed by ranting tirades & while I won't blame Kavanaugh for all of it he was a watershed.

Seamus Heaney’s unpublished poems to be released — read one exclusively here The Poems of Seamus Heaney, out on Thursday, will feature all 12 of the revered Irish author’s collections alongside uncollected works and 25 poems yet to be published

Seamus Heaney’s unpublished poems to be released — read one exclusively here

but it is increasingly hard to look around and not see that as has happened so many times in human history, the worst have risen to the top, to the great detriment of so many.

This is why art, and poetry, and kindness, are more important than ever.

אני מאמין באמונה שלימה

It is very hard to not have an elegiac sense of the world we have known for at least three generations. I don't know if we are in some interregnum or if things are truly falling apart or if something else unknowable is occurring or will occur.

"some analysts say"

You can do good, and live your life to express that - to help others, to lessen pain, to reduce suffering, to speak out against injustice - or you can look to your own well being, and look to what will serve you best, regardless of others. But it is rare that those paths run together for very long.

Whether you're a casual news reader or a breaking news reporter at the NYTimes, I implore you--please, please, please--do not believe or report DHS/ICE/CBP's side of events uncritically. End the state's monopoly on legitimate storytelling. They are not the objective arbiter of what really happened.

Who is Larry Ellison, the billionaire Trump friend who's part of the TikTok takeover? Larry Ellison has a lower profile than other tech billionaires, but his influence over media is about to be immense. His family's empire could soon own CBS, Paramount, CNN and TikTok.

So: the leader of an authoritarian regime hands the keys of media hegemony to a billionaire with such dystopian views that you'd be forgiven if he thought 1984 was a how-to manual...Listen to Ellison's remarks at the 3:00 mark: tell me I'm wrong. He actually sounds excited for the 24/7 panopticon.

Once upon a time.
Oh, yes: 'Once upon a time' -
Such a sad, sad phrase...

#haiku
#poetry

It would simultaneously be both very proper and very funny if they awarded it to Greta Thunberg.

Why don’t Jewish groups who go on and on about Jewish safety demand David Adler’s release? Because when Jews defy Israel, their safety no longer matters. They stop being Jews because for the American Jewish establishment, "Jew" means "pro-Israel." This is what happens when you make a state your god.

"I'm usually pretty appalled by the perspective and issues that Bari has decided to use her considerable platform to amplify," Rosner wrote to me in an e-mail. "Even more, I find her apparent bafflement at being joked about and criticized-even as she has made her profession out of diminishing and criticizing people with whom she disagrees-to be cut from the same flimsy moral fabric as her public opinions."

2019 ✨

"Wiesel taught us that “We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”"

QUESTION - If UC is as concerned as President Milliken states for the protection of our status as a world class institution, what stake does he believe individuals making up that institution and providing that prestige have in their agency and autonomy under the current regime threats?

QUESTION - Why did some individuals named only find out their identities had been shared by the university in this context via media and press reports? If there was as much engagement and review as presented here, surely there was room to notify those under threat of the ongoing discussion.

QUESTION - Why were the individuals involved - considering the heightened risks to personal well being in the current climate - not alerted of the issue prior to delivering the information to the federal government?

While they may not be being investigated directly, the threat should be obvious.

What questions remain, even accepting the institutional posture taken here?

QUESTION - How long did the UC make good faith effort to protect those identities? Days? Weeks? How many redacted iterations were attempted? Was there discussion as to "why" redactions were unacceptable to the fed?

An update from UC President James B. Milliken We begin the academic year with excitement and purpose, but also with recognition that this is a very challenging time for the University of California and higher education more broadly.

The UC community received a letter this morning from UC President Milliken regarding the release of 160 names of faculty students and staff to the federal government in its purported efforts to "investigate antisemitism." The full text is linked.

S.F. Giants' season is over. They left the lights on for us. Despite lease restricting 'primary sports lights' after games, ballpark neighbors document bright stadium lights — sometimes all night

good morning.

one reason I love this city of mine is that in so many ways, despite its profile, it remains a small town, with small town issues and small town methods.

(see also: the thin love between love and hate)

I would say "sort of" qualifies as "close enough"!

the scent of fresh bread
rising in the morning air
warm, ephemeral.

#haiku
#poetry

Petite Boo Halloween Brie Petite Boo Cheese is a seasonal delight from Marin French Cheese Co. This whimsical Petite Boo brie is a perfect blend of traditional craftsmanship and modern flair. Adorned with a striking orange pas...

I have just purchased rounds of seasonal petite boo cheese and am quite pleased with myself about it.