Ben Hammerslag
@bhammerslag.bsky.social
Reposted by Ben Hammerslag
Please, I beg you. If this happens to someone you know: don’t be graceful about it. This level of planet-destroying ignorance to the effects of technology has to be socially ostracized.
November 26, 2025 at 5:11 AM
Please, I beg you. If this happens to someone you know: don’t be graceful about it. This level of planet-destroying ignorance to the effects of technology has to be socially ostracized.
Reposted by Ben Hammerslag
It’s fun to think about the surgeon who will botch your surgery 20 years from now and what he’s doing at this moment. He just ran all his homework through ChatGPT. He just read that article about vaccines and autism at the CDC website. He just watched an Instagram video about the moon landing hoax.
November 21, 2025 at 4:27 AM
It’s fun to think about the surgeon who will botch your surgery 20 years from now and what he’s doing at this moment. He just ran all his homework through ChatGPT. He just read that article about vaccines and autism at the CDC website. He just watched an Instagram video about the moon landing hoax.
Reposted by Ben Hammerslag
And then I said "Sir, it's the Enterprise!"
November 16, 2025 at 2:14 AM
And then I said "Sir, it's the Enterprise!"
Reposted by Ben Hammerslag
reeling at the idea that trump is using an example of people who pay by check at the grocery store in 2025. if you freaky fridayed him into a normal person's life he would starve to death in a week.
Trump: "It's time for Republicans to do what they have to do and that's terminate the filibuster ... we should start tonight with 'the country's open, congratulations,' then we should pass voted ID, we should pass no mail in voting ... you go to a grocery store, you have to give ID."
November 5, 2025 at 2:25 PM
reeling at the idea that trump is using an example of people who pay by check at the grocery store in 2025. if you freaky fridayed him into a normal person's life he would starve to death in a week.
Reposted by Ben Hammerslag
Reposted by Ben Hammerslag
So much of "cancel culture" discourse is a re-description of the normal functioning of a democracy and public discourse by people who didn't like the results of one, or both, or how it made them feel.
Saying that someone doesn’t deserve to be a senator isn’t canceling them, that is the public opinion candidates are subject to in a democracy.
October 25, 2025 at 3:24 PM
So much of "cancel culture" discourse is a re-description of the normal functioning of a democracy and public discourse by people who didn't like the results of one, or both, or how it made them feel.
Reposted by Ben Hammerslag
To check if a pundit is being honest, ask “would he have made this claim a year ago, before he knew it would be a defense of Trump” and folks, I’m 100% certain Douthat would not have argued “The president needs to demolish the East Wing and build a palace” last year
October 26, 2025 at 2:55 PM
To check if a pundit is being honest, ask “would he have made this claim a year ago, before he knew it would be a defense of Trump” and folks, I’m 100% certain Douthat would not have argued “The president needs to demolish the East Wing and build a palace” last year
Reposted by Ben Hammerslag
David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)
October 9, 2025 at 4:42 AM
David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)
Reposted by Ben Hammerslag
This is my regular reminder to everyone that jstor is open to the general public now; a free account there will give you access to 100 papers a year.
regrettably if you try to point this out online you'll get yelled out by 79208 journalists going OH SO YOU WANT JOURNALISTS TO STARVE??? even if you're, say, a journalist yourself, and point out that while there are clearly no easy answers, the status quo isn't exactly working for society
September 29, 2025 at 1:19 PM
This is my regular reminder to everyone that jstor is open to the general public now; a free account there will give you access to 100 papers a year.
Reposted by Ben Hammerslag
The eye exam is the perfect game design. That big E is a great tutorial that teaches you the basic mechanic. But it doesn't baby you and quickly gets hard as they introduce the small and blurry enemies.
September 7, 2025 at 7:12 PM
The eye exam is the perfect game design. That big E is a great tutorial that teaches you the basic mechanic. But it doesn't baby you and quickly gets hard as they introduce the small and blurry enemies.
Reposted by Ben Hammerslag
I mean, whom amongst us hasn't bought a church for someone, developed a secret crush, attempted to commit a murder, then written a book about the experience.
The new Elizabeth Gilbert memoir sounds absolutely berserk
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
September 1, 2025 at 12:46 AM
I mean, whom amongst us hasn't bought a church for someone, developed a secret crush, attempted to commit a murder, then written a book about the experience.
Increasingly convinced that this -- the Legislature refusing to hold the Executive to account -- is Gödel's Loophole.
A US appeals court ordered the Trump administration to resume publicly sharing data on how it is spending federal dollars -- with one judge writing separately to blast the government for suddenly and unilaterally refusing to follow a law that requires transparency
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
August 11, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Increasingly convinced that this -- the Legislature refusing to hold the Executive to account -- is Gödel's Loophole.
Reposted by Ben Hammerslag
As end-of-empire scenarios go it is so much more dignified to get your capital city sacked by the Visigoths than to have a bunch of illiterate rich people in their 70s doing it through a series of incomprehensible tantrums because their brains were defeated by their phones.
August 5, 2025 at 11:44 PM
As end-of-empire scenarios go it is so much more dignified to get your capital city sacked by the Visigoths than to have a bunch of illiterate rich people in their 70s doing it through a series of incomprehensible tantrums because their brains were defeated by their phones.
Reposted by Ben Hammerslag
So you’re telling me the Wizard of Oz presented itself as a towering force of overwhelming technology, only to be unmasked as just some guy, off-screen?
So apparently, it may turn out that The Wizard of Oz at the Las Vegas Sphere wasn’t entirely made in AI and Google threw the VFX crew under the bus by claiming it was all done by artificial intelligence.
If true, then fucking yikes.
If true, then fucking yikes.
August 5, 2025 at 3:02 PM
So you’re telling me the Wizard of Oz presented itself as a towering force of overwhelming technology, only to be unmasked as just some guy, off-screen?
Reposted by Ben Hammerslag
Michael Moorcock has a guide for writing a book in three days. It's entirely possible, I've done it. But here's the thing: no one in the entire world needs a book that has been written very fast. That is not a valuable thing.
We *already* had things that let you write books in thirty-six hours. They were called "manic episodes" and "shittons of speed". Did Philip K. Dick die in vain?! RETVRN!
I saw someone today say that they think AI writing is awesome because they spent 36 hours using Claude to write a book for them and their wife liked it (and she reads A LOT!) and I'm going to go outside now and see if I can get abducted by aliens.
July 25, 2025 at 8:40 PM
Michael Moorcock has a guide for writing a book in three days. It's entirely possible, I've done it. But here's the thing: no one in the entire world needs a book that has been written very fast. That is not a valuable thing.
Reposted by Ben Hammerslag
The actual public service chatgpt provides is in demonstrating the effect of never hearing the word no on the human psyche, it has made billionaire brain pudding a condition accessible to everyone irrespective of net worth
July 19, 2025 at 12:26 PM
The actual public service chatgpt provides is in demonstrating the effect of never hearing the word no on the human psyche, it has made billionaire brain pudding a condition accessible to everyone irrespective of net worth
Reposted by Ben Hammerslag
really interesting that the vice president cites as a key intellectual influence a guy who thinks black people are natural slaves
Curtis Yarvin, who has been profiled in media like Politico and The Wall Street Journal, has publicly stated in the past that he thinks black people are naturally fit to be slaves.
July 5, 2025 at 2:30 PM
really interesting that the vice president cites as a key intellectual influence a guy who thinks black people are natural slaves
Reposted by Ben Hammerslag
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem threatened to use her armed agents to “liberate” Los Angeles from its own elected leaders.
When our Senator dared to ask a question, he was attacked by her security detail.
When our Senator dared to ask a question, he was attacked by her security detail.
Senator Padilla makes an excellent point: if the FBI and Secret Service were willing to physically remove a Senator they had just escorted into the room, force him down on the floor and cuff him because he tried to ask a question
What do you think they & ICE do to regular people?
What do you think they & ICE do to regular people?
July 4, 2025 at 6:43 PM
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
Reposted by Ben Hammerslag
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
NEW: Read Mr Abrego's account of unthinkable torture inside CECOT prison in El Salvador. My latest: content warning: www.muellershewrote.com/p/mr-abregos...
Mr. Abrego's Account of Torture at CECOT in El Salvador
Mr. Abrego has filed an amended complaint asking the court to declare the government's actions unlawful and to order his release. He describes his torture in El Salvador in the complaint.
www.muellershewrote.com
July 4, 2025 at 6:42 PM
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
Reposted by Ben Hammerslag
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
🚨Want to know where all the immigration enforcement money is going to? We've got you covered!
- $51.6 billion for border wall ($46.6 billion for wall, $5 billion for CBP checkpoints and facilities).
- $45 billion for ICE detention
- $29.9 billion for ICE enforcement
Grand total: $170.7 billion.
- $51.6 billion for border wall ($46.6 billion for wall, $5 billion for CBP checkpoints and facilities).
- $45 billion for ICE detention
- $29.9 billion for ICE enforcement
Grand total: $170.7 billion.
July 4, 2025 at 6:40 PM
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
Reposted by Ben Hammerslag
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
Reporter: Are you going to deport Elon Musk?
Trump: We'll have to take a look. We might have to put DOGE on Elon. You know what DOGE is? The monster that might have to go back and eat Elon. Wouldn’t that be terrible? He gets a lot of subsidies.
Trump: We'll have to take a look. We might have to put DOGE on Elon. You know what DOGE is? The monster that might have to go back and eat Elon. Wouldn’t that be terrible? He gets a lot of subsidies.
July 4, 2025 at 6:40 PM
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
Reposted by Ben Hammerslag
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
Good lord, just learned (form the conlawprof Listserv) about the most transparently Orbanist stunt yet. Steven Miller filed a FOIA suit against John Roberts as pretense to claim that the administrative office of the U.S. courts is really an executive agency
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
storage.courtlistener.com
July 4, 2025 at 6:39 PM
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
Reposted by Ben Hammerslag
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
Of course, after Trump v. CASA, courts can no longer issue universal injunctions to stop the president from illegally closing an agency, impounding money, or purging the federal workforce. So as long as the next Democratic president acts fast, he gets to do all this before any court can stop him.
July 4, 2025 at 6:38 PM
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
Reposted by Ben Hammerslag
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
“We are seeing a wholesale expansion of ICE detention centers,” @lbeisen.bsky.social told @washingtonpost.com for a story about the funding for ICE detention in the federal budget bill.
ICE prepares detention blitz with historic $45 billion in funding
Much of the new allocation from Congress will go to private prison contractors tasked with doubling the nation’s capacity to lock up migrants.
www.washingtonpost.com
July 4, 2025 at 6:37 PM
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
Reposted by Ben Hammerslag
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
NEW: In letters to companies with app stores, AG Pam Bondi purported to be "irrevocably relinquishing any claims" against them — Apple, plus Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and T-Mobile — for violating the TikTok ban. This is so, per Bondi, b/c Trump said it's OK, despite contrary language in the law.
July 4, 2025 at 6:36 PM
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.