Ben Mauk @benmauk.bsky.social · 08/10/2025Recommended if like me you are a cult fan of Rivka Galchen's Atmospheric Disturbances, or if you like Perec, Pynchon, Tawada, or Shusaku Endo (whose book THE SEA AND POISON Beilin brilliantly remixes). 130
Ben Mauk @benmauk.bsky.social · 08/10/2025My friend and colleague Caren Beilin's new novel SEA, POISON is out with New Directions. I may be biased but it's the best new novel I've read in a long time. A paranoid comic body horror thriller by way of Oulipo, it's enormously fun, smart, and disturbing. www.ndbooks.com/book/sea-poi...ndbooks.comSea, PoisonCumin Baleen is a forty-one-year-old writer living in Philadelphia—this city of hospitals—who works at the upscale grocery Sea & Poison and is navigating the onset of an autoimmune condition. To start... 130
Reposted by Ben MaukAaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 06/03/2025Last November, the New York Times had a searing exposé on the treatment of Uyghurs trapped in Thailand during a migration crackdown. Worth your time if you want to learn more about what was happening here. www.nytimes.com/2024/11/10/m...nytimes.comHe Made a Daring Escape From China. Then His Real Troubles Began.He fled brutal repression — only to discover, as so many Uyghur refugees have, that China’s power stretches far beyond its borders. 1419
Ben Mauk @benmauk.bsky.social · 16/09/2025bidoun.org/articles/hou...bidoun.orgHouse ArabI was working at the magazine as a fact-checker and my parents no longer considered me a failure, not because they read or admired it, but because when they said its name to friends and relatives it s... 063
Ben Mauk @benmauk.bsky.social · 05/09/2025"I don’t even know a single person in the movement who hasn’t been physically assaulted in some way by the cops. Punched, choked, shoved, slapped, kicked – I am at a loss for words to describe how bad the police abuse situation here is.” www.irishtimes.com/world/europe...irishtimes.comIrish protester Kitty O’Brien accuses Berlin police of widespread violenceInvestigation under way into assault on O’Brien who claims police brutality expected in pro-Palestine demonstrations 085
Ben Mauk @benmauk.bsky.social · 03/09/2025The biggest problem in America is a right-wing disinformation machine that has waged a decades-long war on public attention, conquered the media landscape, and entirely reshaped civic society. Every other problem, including higher ed, is downstream. benmauk.substack.com/p/the-crisis...benmauk.substack.comThe Crisis in Higher Education: A Debate with Michael CluneWhen the vice president says "the universities are the enemy," let’s believe him. 020
Ben Mauk @benmauk.bsky.social · 01/09/2025"I don’t write to convey a message, and I don’t write stories to achieve any particular purpose. I don’t write stories to persuade a reader of something I believe, though I have many, many beliefs." Lydia Davis in Harper's harpers.org/archive/2025...harpers.orgDemanding Pleasures, by Lydia DavisOn the art of observation 020
Ben Mauk @benmauk.bsky.social · 01/09/2025Phenomenal piece of criticism www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...lrb.co.ukJenny Turner · Something Is Surviving: Olga Tokarczuk’s MycophiliaMushrooms, trees, turf, twigs, bushes, moss-covered stones: nature is a force in Olga Tokarczuk’s Empusium,... 010
Reposted by Ben MaukMichael Clemens @mclem.org · 28/08/2025This is a real photograph of Washington, DC this week, where the United States president has ordered military occupation in peacetime, and ordered the display of colossal portraits of himself. www.wsj.com/politics/pol... 6100554301
Ben Mauk @benmauk.bsky.social · 08/08/2025I just got it to replicate the error, although inconsistently. It seems more likely to happen if it is an initial query rather than part of a longer thread. bsky.app/profile/benm... 010
Reposted by Ben MaukOlúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 06/08/2025"Days after rejecting the claim that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of the liberal Zionist advocacy and lobby group J Street, has said he has been “persuaded” that he was wrong." admitting you were wrong is good www.timesofisrael.com/j-street-hea...timesofisrael.comJ Street head says he’s now convinced Israel committing genocide in GazaJeremy Ben-Ami explains he has been 'persuaded rationally' by legal and scholarly arguments, stresses that though he won't use term himself, he won't argue against it either 14686164
Reposted by Ben MaukDavid J. Bier @davidjbier.bsky.social · 06/08/2025Border Patrol at a Home Depot in Los Angeles days after the 9th circuit affirmed a court order that purports to block this exact behavior. They don't even know who they're chasing! This is insane. Send them all to jail. 23629701007
Reposted by Ben MaukThe New York Review of Books @nybooks.com · 06/08/2025“Joseph Pilates was by most accounts neither socially graceful nor articulate. He was possessed, though, of a lifelong boundless faith in himself and in [his] machines.” —Alma Guillermoprietobuff.lyBodies by Joe | Alma GuillermoprietoWith his strange machines and an uncanny, intuitive understanding of muscles, Joseph Pilates created a new technique for improving strength and movement. 073
Reposted by Ben MaukRadley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 29/07/2025Just to reiterate: What this administration is doing right now is orders of magnitude more dangerous for academic freedom and free speech than anything the right has spent the last 30 years complaining about. 7646041565
Reposted by Ben MaukAaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 28/07/2025“‘This is an unprecedented situation where hundreds of detainees are held incommunicado, with no ability to access the courts, under legal authority that has never been explained and may not exist,’ they argued.” www.miamiherald.com/news/local/i...miamiherald.comLawyers question legality of Alligator Alcatraz, ask federal judge to intervene“This is an unprecedented situation where hundreds of detainees are held incommunicado, with no ability to access the courts, under legal authority that has never been explained and may not exist,” pl... 10633931409
Reposted by Ben MaukNorbert Maria Schüssler @nmschuessler.bsky.social · 18/07/2025Flieger gestartet: Merz-Regierung schiebt trotz Taliban-Herrschaft nach Afghanistan ab Trotz der verheerenden Menschenrechtssituation in Afghanistan schiebt die Bundesregierung Dutzende Personen dorthin ab. Asyl-Organisationen schlagen Alarm. www.fr.de/politik/merz...fr.deFlieger gestartet: Merz-Regierung schiebt trotz Taliban-Herrschaft nach Afghanistan abTrotz der verheerenden Menschenrechtssituation in Afghanistan schiebt die Bundesregierung Dutzende Personen dorthin ab. Asyl-Organisationen schlagen Alarm. 1188
Reposted by Ben MaukZackary Berger שלום בערגער @drberger.bsky.social · 15/07/2025In @theintercept.com, Debbie Nathan reports on ICE lawyers refusing to give their names in court - and immigration judges going along with it. theintercept.com/2025/07/15/i...theintercept.comICE Lawyers Are Hiding Their Names in Immigration CourtICE attorneys fighting to deport immigrants are able to obscure their identities — no masks required. 18226011116
Reposted by Ben MaukMax Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 14/07/2025Law is fake, power is real. 221263360
Reposted by Ben MaukBrian Goldstone @brian-goldstone.bsky.social · 13/07/2025An Israeli airstrike just killed 10 people—six of them kids—as they stood in line for water. Yesterday 31 more Palestinians were shot dead while trying to reach an aid distribution site. This is what our tax dollars continue to fund. And most of the country couldn't care less.theguardian.comIsraeli airstrike kills at least 10, including six children, at Gaza water station, say health officialsNine killed in separate bombing of a home on Sunday and 31 others shot dead near aid distribution site on Saturday 515291
Reposted by Ben MaukDavid J. Bier @davidjbier.bsky.social · 12/07/2025Another ICE "assault" case unravels. Border Patrol and ICE are arresting US citizens and then after they find out that they are US citizens, they are charging them with "assault" to justify their actions. This is clearly DHS policy at this point. We've seen it repeatedly now. 452148726565
Reposted by Ben MaukNaomi Feinstein @naomifeinstein.bsky.social · 07/07/2025NEW: The contractors working at Alligator Alcatraz are illegally covering up the USDOT numbers on their trucks.miaminewtimes.comTrucks Entering Alligator Alcatraz Are Hiding Their Logos, DOT NumbersThe contractors are illegally covering up the USDOT numbers on their trucks. 24823
Reposted by Ben MaukMarisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 06/07/2025Pulitzer Prize-winning Palestinian writer Mosab Abu Toha says he’s been suspended from Substack, a platform where white supremacists publish without issue. I can’t recall this happening to any prominent writers in the past. 6649221559
Reposted by Ben Maukelia ayoub @ayoub.bsky.social · 04/07/2025Boston Consulting Group is consulting on how to ethnically cleanse hundreds of millions of Palestinians. Genocide is done through consulting firms now. 46844
Reposted by Ben MaukHanno Hauenstein @hahauenstein.bsky.social · 05/07/2025Das unlängst vom Antisemitismus-Fonds des Berliner Senats geförderte Georg-Kolbe-Museum zeigt eine Skulptur, die die Nazis einst dem jüdischen Ehepaar Heinrich und Jenny Stahl geraubt haben – nur eben ohne Hinweis auf NS-Raubkunst. Keine Pointe. www.faz.net/aktuell/feui...faz.netRaubkunsteklat um Tänzerinnen-Brunnen im Berliner Kolbe MuseumDie Uneinsichtigkeit des Museums: Georg Kolbes berühmter Tänzerinnen-Brunnen, für den in Theresienstadt getöteten Heinrich Stahl geschaffen, bleibt um seine dunkle Geschichte betrogen. Der Begriff „NS... 34713
Reposted by Ben MaukEduard Cousin @eduardcousin.bsky.social · 05/07/2025“Whomever got a bag of flour, got shot in the head. The bags of flour were all over the ground. Covered in blood,” said a #MSF worker, who survived latest Israeli massacre at aid site in Khan Younis aje.io/xoi4su?updat...aje.ioUpdates: Hamas sends ‘positive’ response on ceasefire, Israel kills 50These were the updates from Israel’s war on Gaza for Friday, July 4, 2025. 1108
Reposted by Ben MaukHarms Committed @harmscommitted.com · 04/07/2025"I still hear the gunshots in my head. I still see Ahmad's face before he fell." "But hunger doesn't care — it comes back every morning." "I was caught between two impossible choices: slow death from hunger, or gambling my life for the chance of survival." #Gaza #Palestine #Israel #USA #Genocidemondoweiss.netEvery time I go to a U.S.-run ‘aid’ center in Gaza, I know I might not come backI have risked my life to get food from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation centers in Gaza, where Israel opens fire on aid seekers from every direction. I have an impossible choice: slow death from… 176
Reposted by Ben MaukHarms Committed @harmscommitted.com · 04/07/2025"This is the worst stage of the genocide in Gaza." "We have run out of energy, food, and basic necessities." "The massacres are relentless and nonstop. Emotionally and materially, we are unable to go on." #Gaza #Palestine #Israel #Genocideinthesetimes.comThis Is the Worst Phase of the Gaza GenocideWith aid deliveries being limited severely since March, Palestinians are facing extreme levels of starvation, isolation and murder by Israel. 289
Reposted by Ben MaukOlúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 04/07/2025rare W for COINTELPRO from a legendary conversation between Bhakti Shringarpure and Mahmood Mamdani (h/t Silke-Marie Weineck) 211759404
Ben Mauk @benmauk.bsky.social · 04/07/2025He's as bad as Biden! time.com/3394403/shyl...time.comWhen Did ‘Shylock’ Become a Slur?Vice President Biden has apologized for using the term 110
Ben Mauk @benmauk.bsky.social · 04/07/2025The latter terms fall within the normal language of reporting and analysis. I don't have any of my style guides on hand, but come on, "enemy"? 010
Reposted by Ben MaukAaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 04/07/2025Trump refers to bankers as "shylocks" 3771913529
Ben Mauk @benmauk.bsky.social · 04/07/2025Does the NYT routinely describe China and the US as enemies (as opposed to "adversaries," "rivals," etc.)? China is the USA's third-largest trading partner and the countries are not at war. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/04/w... 110
Reposted by Ben MaukDavid Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 01/07/2025The Joint Committee on Taxation is up late and busts out this striking distributional analysis of the Senate bill on taxes: 591106629
Reposted by Ben MaukOlúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 01/07/2025"Air strikes left 30 dead at a seaside cafe and gunfire killed 23 others as Palestinians tried to get desperately-needed food, witnesses and health officials said." www.irishexaminer.com/world/arid-4...irishexaminer.com74 killed in Gaza as Israeli forces strike cafe and fire on people seeking foodAir strikes left 30 dead at a seaside cafe and gunfire killed 23 others as Palestinians tried to get desperately-needed food, witnesses and health officials said 13468262
Reposted by Ben MaukNicholas Guyatt @nicholasguyatt.bsky.social · 25/06/2025It's so bizarre to see the Times describe Zohran as "far left" when they would never use "far right" to describe Trump and his MAGA goons, even as the latter are currently destroying the political structures and assumptions that have anchored America for nearly a century 25211
Reposted by Ben MaukEmily Dische-Becker @emilydische.bsky.social · 25/06/2025first we take Manhattan and then we take Berlin 0275
Reposted by Ben MaukKevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 24/06/2025Remember, this new normal -- in which gangs of masked armed gunmen are causing chaos in the streets, pulling weapons and assaulting innocent people, and no one can say if they're crooks or cops -- was all sold to Americans as a way to make us feel safer. 21867852380
Reposted by Ben MaukBo Thompson @gaudipern.bsky.social · 24/06/2025When my friends abroad ask how the US funds the arts, I like to give a fun set of numbers for comparison: Last year the NYPD paid $305m in legal settlements. The budget for the entire National Endowment for the Arts was $205m. One police department in a single major city paid 50% more in legal fees. 222078
Reposted by Ben MaukJoshua Clark Davis @joshuaclarkdavis.bsky.social · 23/06/2025Jeff Bezos: "We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets." Today's Washington Post opinion page: 2024008815
Reposted by Ben MaukJohn Carl Baker @johncarlbaker.bsky.social · 20/06/2025Super weird article. It (rightly) questions the cohesion of the so-called Axis of Upheaval and notes that China could “gain if the United States gets roped into a prolonged war” but leaves that thought unexamined www.nytimes.com/2025/06/20/w...nytimes.comA U.S. Attack on Iran Would Show the Limits of China’s Power 1244
Reposted by Ben MaukBrian Goldstone @brian-goldstone.bsky.social · 16/06/2025"In its annihilative force and ambition, the Israeli campaign is unique among modern conflicts. In fact, the term 'war crime' is not even adequate for what's happening in Gaza." A searing, essential piece by Suzy Hansen:nymag.comIsrael’s Crimes of the CenturyHow Israel, with the help of the U.S., broke not only Gaza but the foundations of humanitarian law. 16733258
Reposted by Ben MaukMax Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 17/06/2025Democratic politicians & consultants should spend less time yapping about the effect of random leftist social media posts on their branding, and more time dealing with the Democratic Senator taking a pro-Trump position with a mere 16% popular support then adding, for flair, the language of genocide. 311671424
Reposted by Ben MaukHarms Committed @harmscommitted.com · 17/06/2025"[P]olice departments and sheriff offices around the country have repeatedly tapped into the cameras inside California [.] on behalf of [ICE], digitally reaching into the sanctuary state in a data sharing practice that experts say is illegal." #California #USA #Policing #Deportation #EthnicCleansing404media.coCalifornia Cops Investigate ‘Immigration Protest’ With AI-Camera SystemNew data obtained by 404 Media also shows California cops are illegally sharing Flock automatic license plate reader (ALPR) data with other agencies out of state, who in turn are performing searches… 11815
Reposted by Ben MaukKatie Mack @astrokatie.com · 17/06/2025I still can't get past the idea that people in America are now supposed to accept that this is a valid form of law enforcement and just assume it's fine when random dudes in groups with face-coverings, no ID, no warrant, & no uniform grab people off the street and force them into unmarked vehicles 516231377177
Ben Mauk @benmauk.bsky.social · 17/06/2025Have never bothered to read any magazine story about a plane crash without his byline, but could read him on any subject, including 17,000 words on the Sahara: longform.org/posts/the-wo...longform.orgThe World in Its Extreme by William Langewiesche · LongformA 17,000-word exploration of the Sahara Desert, the hottest place on Earth. 010