Ben Platt
@bravohotelpapa.bsky.social
370 followers 1.6K following 33 posts
editing books and articles, on my own and at PUBLIC BOOKS https://www.ben-platt.com/
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Reposted by Ben Platt
durba.bsky.social
The cover for my book, The Future That Was, is now live! It features the MacArthur genius artist Shahzia Sikander's Infinite Woman (2021), where earth is surrounded by an infinite series of women marching around the globe who, from afar, become rays of the sun ☀️

press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
The Future That Was
How Third World women seized the means of knowledge production to fight against rising authoritarianism and imagine a future freer than our present
press.princeton.edu
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jnucho.bsky.social
This is absolutely stunning. "We see BlackRock positioning itself very aggressively to take advantage of the entire supply chain when it comes to AI and data centers, and power generation is a really key part of that,” Schafer told the Prospect. "
prospect.org
Ignoring a judge’s recommendation, the Minnesota regulators unanimously approved BlackRock’s plan to take Minnesota Power private. Private equity is buying up utilities as profits from fueling data centers grow. From James Baratta: trib.al/DhfuUOy
BlackRock Just Bought a Minnesota Utility
On Friday, state regulators voted unanimously in favor of allowing private equity to take a Duluth-based utility holding company private. The Prospect takes you inside the room where it all went down.
trib.al
Reposted by Ben Platt
jnucho.bsky.social
This was a $2.2 billion dollar project, less than 15 years old, and already getting shut down. You can see it driving from LA to Las Vegas - it looks like the eye of Sauron and apparently incinerates 6000 birds per year.
Reposted by Ben Platt
riverheadbooks.bsky.social
🎉Today we're celebrating two Riverhead titles on the @nationalbook.bsky.social Nonfiction Longlist! 🎉

CONGRATULATIONS to @calebgayle.bsky.social and Jordan Thomas on this recognition of their incredible and important books!!!
Reposted by Ben Platt
calebgayle.bsky.social
Still can’t believe it
riverheadbooks.bsky.social
🎉Today we're celebrating two Riverhead titles on the @nationalbook.bsky.social Nonfiction Longlist! 🎉

CONGRATULATIONS to @calebgayle.bsky.social and Jordan Thomas on this recognition of their incredible and important books!!!
Reposted by Ben Platt
marc-fischer.bsky.social
It's clear that printing and distribution of my publication TASKS FOR THE NATIONAL GUARD IN CHICAGO is going to disrupt my life at a time when I have no time, so here are files you can print from. It's a double-sided 8.5 x 11" sheet of paper. Please do not edit the text. Have fun!
Reposted by Ben Platt
marc-fischer.bsky.social
If you saw my earlier posts with this same intro header, Tasks for the National Guard in Chicago, they have become the latest Public Collectors zine. I finished it this morning. It's a single folded sheet and I made 425 copies. Get one free on 8/31, 11-6 at the Hairpin Arts Center, at #ZineMercado
A pink folded sheet shown next to a bone folder with the title: 

TASKS FOR THE NATIONAL GUARD IN CHICAGO

What follows is a preliminary list of 25 recommended tasks in advance of the pointless military occupation of Chicago by the 
National Guard, ordered by the president. These tasks may be completed in no particular order but they must be completed. Once finished to our satisfaction, new tasks can be assigned as needed. Good luck, troops.
Reposted by Ben Platt
bradlander.bsky.social
True: @zohranmamdani lives in 1 unit of rent-stabilized housing.

Also true: Andrew Cuomo oversaw the loss of 96,064 units of rent-stabilized housing. And killed NYC’s program helping people move out of shelter.

Leaders must show moral clarity. Andrew, time to move out. 🧵
x.com/andrewcuomo/...
Reposted by Ben Platt
maris.bsky.social
I want to burn this place down
Forthcoming: A Book From Samuel Alito

Basic Books will publish a book by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito in 2026, the publisher confirmed to PL. The book was acquired by Thomas Spence for the Basic Liberty imprint. It does not yet have a title and no agent was involved.

Hachette Book Group also reportedly has a book by Justice Brett Kavanaugh under contract, from the Center Street imprint. The book was originally sold to Regnery, but the project moved after Regnery was sold to Skyhorse. Kavanaugh reported receiving a first advance from Regnery in his 2023 income disclosure.

Also on the way from the high court is Justice Amy Coney Barrett's LISTENING TO THE LAW, which Sentinel will publish on September 9.
Reposted by Ben Platt
zohrankmamdani.bsky.social
Cuomo: I am now running on affordability.

Also Cuomo: there is no “real answer” on affordability.
Reposted by Ben Platt
Reposted by Ben Platt
dov.bsky.social
People arent going to like this take because this site is so American but the reality of it is that every single way in which a car is "more convenient" is very literally illusory in literally all cases except where public transport actually /physically does not exist./ Yes sorry it's all delusion
Reposted by Ben Platt
jamellebouie.net
me, personally? i'd call it Reconstruction.
Reposted by Ben Platt
missingthept.bsky.social
Why does the United States need a space program when Elon Musk has a plan that will result in putting dead astronauts on Mars?
Reposted by Ben Platt
zohrankmamdani.bsky.social
With the updated RCV totals just released by the Board of Elections, our campaign has officially earned the most total votes in a primary in New York City history.
Reposted by Ben Platt
publicbooks.bsky.social
Who is Thomas Carlyle? And why did people stop reading him?

@ivan812.bsky.social writes: “Once you’ve pictured Hitler and Goebbels using Carlyle’s book as a kind of Fascist Ouija board to foretell a successful thousand-year Reich, you can’t unsee it.
In the Führerbunker with Carlyle and Yarvin
Curtis Yarvin—and, through him, arguably, Thomas Carlyle—has now emerged as a significant source of ideas for the present administration.
www.publicbooks.org
Reposted by Ben Platt
publicbooks.bsky.social
“For Thomas Carlyle, a nation must be synonymous with, or subsumed by, its army.”

New at PB: @ivan812.bsky.social discusses the Victorian thinker whose writing style “was so amenable to Fascists … that we even might say that it itself is proto-Fascistic.”
In the Führerbunker with Carlyle and Yarvin
Curtis Yarvin—and, through him, arguably, Thomas Carlyle—has now emerged as a significant source of ideas for the present administration.
www.publicbooks.org
Reposted by Ben Platt
princetonupress.bsky.social
“Nasr’s detailed study, more relevant than ever, draws on a lifetime of research and new interviews, providing a detailed and nuanced account of the mixture of domestic and international imperatives that really drive Iranian policy.”

www.ft.com/content/b649...
Iran's Grand Strategy: A Political History by Vali Nasr
Reposted by Ben Platt
aj-boston.bsky.social
shooting bottle rockets from my rooftop at those damned Solara brothers