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Ben Plume

@pittbaster.bsky.social
1K followers 1.5K following 1.2K posts

I like nature, sci-fi, books, and being Dad. Live in the Maryland DC suburbs with a pretty cool spouse. Admittedly tired.

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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 2h
Tech industry is laser focused on solving the problem of humans enjoying each other’s company bsky.app/profile/down...
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Ben Plume @pittbaster.bsky.social · 14h
Yeah, so much focus on the obvious blunder (deservedly) that it’s easy to gloss over how even without the mistake it would be nonsense. Are we all now implicated in everything that happens in every city we travel to?
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Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 15h
The White House Accord on AI: • We Do Not Want to Be Regulated • We Will Not Be Regulated • Donald Trump is really, really smart • We promise to pay him in crypto all he wants
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Princess Vimentin PhD | Cancer Biologist @princess-vimentin.bsky.social · 18h
Jack Smith: "History teaches that the rule of law is rarely destroyed all at once. It's often weakened by attacks on the institutions and the public servants sworn to uphold it. Since January 2025, we have witnessed precisely such an effort." 🎯 #pinks
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Faine Greenwood @faineg.com · 16h
oh man, I just tried it and america.gov really does get REAL weird when you tell it to “play Minecraft”
america.gov
America.gov
Find answers from official government sources and clear next steps for the services you need with America.gov.
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Ben Plume @pittbaster.bsky.social · 16h
Average investor class: Right, but like, I get all the money first right?
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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 19h
Today in "absolutely not"
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Simon Rosenberg @simonwdc.bsky.social · 23h
If this goes ahead it is Trump overtly taking Russia's side in the war against Ukraine and Europe, aligning the United States with China, Iran, and North Korea. Like the Putin G20 visit, it cannot be allowed to happen. We must fight.
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Robert Evans (the Only Robert Evans) @iwriteok.bsky.social · 21h
yes when i think of the people in my life I've watched weep in despair for lack of affordable childcare options i think "urban, affluent voters"
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Robert Evans (the Only Robert Evans) @iwriteok.bsky.social · 21h
this kind of policy is going to primarily help single parents. single parents, particularly single moms, can use more help than almost any other category of people I can name. it's an inconceivably demanding job and i would love if my tax dollars helped make it easier.
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Adam Keiper @adamkeiper.com · 21h
O
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Michelle @michelleroy78.bsky.social · 22h
Sometimes political ads just write themseleves.
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capillariancrest.bsky.social @capillariancrest.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Ironically, it’s the rich people I know who don’t understand money. They don’t understand that other people are constrained by it and they don’t understand the value of a dollar because they have infinite dollars, essentially. Poor people understand money very well in my experience.
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 22h
This was like watching a 4 minute murder mystery with an incredible reveal at the end
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Mollie Katzen @molliekatzen.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
There are more Cornell frat boys accused of raping one woman than there are trans athletes competing in all of NCAA sports.
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Lish McBride @lishmcbride.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Oh, it’s even worse. To be very clear—I support trans people and think this whole thing is bullshit. But title 9 also creates a pathway on campuses and federal spaces for people who have been sexually harassed, stalked and assaulted to be protected and seek investigation.
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Anna Gifty @itsafronomics.blacksky.app · 28/09/2026
Let the history books show that STUDENT reporters brought national attention to unchecked abuse. I hope that their cups and opportunities forever overfloweth.This is courage.
abcnews.com
District attorney reopens case of alleged Cornell University 'gang rape'
Prosecutors in central New York say they are reopening the case of alleged gang rape at a Cornell University fraternity.
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Wes Smith Ω 🧢 @wessmith123.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
New Poll: 37% of Americans have brain damage.
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Karen Attiah @karenattiah.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
In an age when the Peter Thiels of the world are smiling and saying evil does good because it is competent, we are entering a time when we will need to be aggressively "pro-human." Or at the very least, Pro-Good. And we have to build power, unapologetically.
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 26/09/2026
8/ As the @nytimes.com reported, DraftKings uses machine learning and data scientists to entice losing customers with promos to keep them going — even if those are the customers at risk of becoming addicts. The company says it doesn’t unfairly target people.
nytimes.com
How DraftKings Uses A.I. to Target the Gamblers Likeliest to Lose
Data science helps determine who receives betting incentives, but the company has resisted using similar technology to protect gamblers at risk of addiction.
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Ben Plume @pittbaster.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I know CBS is in the bag and all, but really “some lawmakers called” is a funny way of saying “which appears to be explicitly and clearly”
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post malone ergo propter malone @proptermalone.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
just a quick reminder that this fuckhead was the proximate trigger for thousands of National Guardsmen being deployed to DC
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Oregon 🕎🎲 @oregonthedm.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
That's a headline for you cmarmitage.substack.com/p/big-balls-...
cmarmitage.substack.com
Big Balls Now Exposed to Serious Criminal Charges in at Least Six States
Fired at 17 for leaking secrets. Served a cybercrime ring. Named by the Social Security whistleblower. Now the government's model employee.
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teamhamiltonhq.bsky.social @teamhamiltonhq.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Meischa was Roger Marshall's patient. This is her story.
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Ellison has gone all in on extending his family’s entertainment empire. Genuinely wonder how vulnerable his core business is to collapsing if a hostile govt starts cancelling his contracts. (On the flip side, he is ever more dependent on GOP govts, which is not good for the owner of CNN & CBS)
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Matthew Dowd @matthewjdowd.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Multi-billionaire tech bro Peter Thiel, right winger who financed JD Vance's Senate race, today called Pope Leo "a useful idiot for the Chinese Communists". Pope Leo has put out various warnings of AI and tech being a danger to our hearts and humanity.
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Ben Plume @pittbaster.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Shouldn’t, IDK, literally anyone else be making this decision?
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Dan Froomkin/Press Watch/Heads Up News @froomkin.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
"The Trump administration’s decision not to invite the leading international election observation body to monitor crucial US midterm polls fuels fears of serious human rights concerns around the upcoming elections, Human Rights Watch said today." www.hrw.org/news/2026/09...
hrw.org
US: Trump Administration Rejects External Election Observers
The Trump administration’s decision not to invite the leading international election observation body to monitor crucial US midterm polls fuels fears of serious human rights concerns around the upcomi...
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To-wen Tseng @twtseng.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
As a former education reporter and current teacher, I’m concerned about how AI is being introduced into our schools. When Education Secretary Linda McMahan points to Alpha School as a model, I have questions. www.towentseng.info/post/our-stu... #AIinEducation #EducationPolicy #K12Education
towentseng.info
Our Kids Shouldn't Be Guinea Pigs For Chatbots
Why it concerns me, a mother and an education reporter, when McMahon backs classroom AI use by referencing Alpha School.
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SweetWitch2697🔮🎱🪄-MY OPINIONS ARE MY OWN BEASTLY CONCOCTIONS! @sweetwitch2697.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Russell Vought once said he wanted federal workers “traumatically affected.” Now Trump wants Vought on a board that can block NIH grants. When a president turns health research into leverage against political enemies, families pay in delayed cures. #TrumpsCorruptCongress
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Stan Oklobdzija @stano.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Coming around to the idea that the biggest priority for Americans interested in keeping liberal democracy alive for the next several decades is whole scale reform of the Supreme Court and the judiciary. We can't afford to have Reconstruction 2.0 hampered by the SCOTUS like Reconstruction 1.0 was.
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Wendy the Woke @nomorex61.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
“underline the damage that Mr. Trump is doing to American influence and global well-being. He is an undisciplined politician who puts his personal interests above the nation’s” Climate change, AI and the Middle East. Trump not is leading on any of these. #sheshed www.nytimes.com/2026/09/24/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | Trump’s Failure to Lead Is Costing America and the World (Gift Article)
Trump’s flailing presidency leaves Americans with the thinnest of hopes for this week’s summit: that he does not further damage the national interest.
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Nathan Tankus @nathantankus.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
A lot of people said a lot of things about the ineffectiveness of production limitations for generating greenhouse gas reductions and speeding up renewable adoption for the past decade which were clearly false. May "keynesianism means we have to keep building oil and gas infrastructure" finally die
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Benjamin Ahr Harrison @benjaminahr.mobi · 25/09/2026
If we made this tee shirt for @greatesttrek.com how many would you buy? Like for one shirt. Reskeet for ten shirts. Quote skeet other quantities.
It’s a mocked up photo of a man wearing an all over print tee shirt made to look like the shirt Riker wears to honor the head of the government on the planet Angel One in the TNG episode of the same name. It’s mostly teal with a plunging neckline simulated by the design having an illustration of a mostly bare hairy chest with one nipple out.
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Jon Cooper @joncooper-us.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Holy crap. Susan Collins is finished. What a corrupt POS. I hope she goes to prison for this. www.propublica.org/article/fbi-...
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Subscribe to Radio Free America (link in bio) @kleinman.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Thought this was newsworthy enough to post a Twitter screenshot
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Natali Fani-González @natalifg.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Thanks to the Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection, Glenmont Shopping Center got a deep cleaning this last week. These photos don’t look like much, but they show a parking lot free of trash, after DEP engaged with property owners to remove trash from the area.
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Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Awful: Trump's Office of "Remigration" has just been exposed making sordid payments to authoritarian governments to take third-country deportees, leading to serious abuses. Dems tell me they will try to defund the agency if they win power. They should. 1/ New piece: newrepublic.com/article/2157...
newrepublic.com
Stephen Miller’s MAGA Terror Campaign Exposed by Damning New Leaks
Sordid revelations about the white-nationalist-themed Office of Remigration should galvanize Democrats: If they win power, they must try to shut it down.
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Whitney Curry Wimbish @whitneycwimbish.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
@detentionwatchnetwork.org just put out a press release saying that Marchena Marchena died because ICE medically neglected his diabetes, an agonizing way to die. Torture.
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Whitney Curry Wimbish @whitneycwimbish.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I am heartbroken to read that yet another person has died in Trump's concentration camps. Carlos Josue Marchena-Marchena was 36. He died on Sept. 18. The press release provides no details. It serves only to condemn the victim and absolve the government.
ice.gov
Criminal illegal alien in ICE custody passes away at Winnfield Correctional Center in Louisiana
Carlos Josue Marchena-Marchena, a 36-year-old criminal illegal alien from Costa Rica, passed away in ICE custody Sept 18, 2026.
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Ben Plume @pittbaster.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
IDW HIRE GAIL FOR STAR TREK BOOKS TODAY PLEASE AND THANK YOU
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Matthew Gault @mjgault.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
wild scenes out of Springfield, Missouri. Two people were arrested for trying to voice concerns about Flock cameras. Video of it is in the story
404media.co
Woman Arrested After City Council Denies Residents Right to Speak on Flock Cameras
Citizens of Springfield, Missouri showed up to a city council meeting to discuss the city’s Flock contract. The mayor shut them down and arrested two people for ‘disruption of meetings of city council...
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Authoritarian regimes' mismanagement of scientific institutions consistently undermines the public interest. The only question here is whether the Supreme Court will extend unitary executive theory to "the president has a right to use NIH tax dollars to punish his enemies". bsky.app/profile/cram...
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Vought would sit on his proposed NIH review committee, which requires unanimity. And so a guy that Trump compared to the Grim Reaper would give himself a line-item veto over $48 billion in health spending. Expect the decisions to be good as the totalitarian kitsch in the Kennedy Center.
ai slop of russ vought as the grim reaper
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Yale Climate Connections @climateconnections.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
A new study finds that climate pollution caused by just 122 companies led to a 15% decline in annual average Western mountain snowpacks. yaleclimateconnections.org/2026/09/scie...
yaleclimateconnections.org
Scientists link fossil fuel producers to the West’s worsening water shortages » Yale Climate Connections
A new study blames 122 companies for contributing to severe drought in the region.
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𝕊𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕒𝕖 𝔾𝕦𝕣𝕝 @sundaedivine.lol · 19/09/2026
Okay, this got me.
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Sarah Szalavitz💡 @dearsarah.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
FCC says Paramounts request to override Congress’s 1934 national security restrictions on foreign media ownership is in the “public interest”—& permits MiddleEastern royal families & wealth funds to own 50%+ of WarnerMount www.latimes.com/entertainmen... what is more public interest than🇸🇦owning CNN?
latimes.com
FCC approves foreign owners for a merged Paramount-Warner Bros.
Royal families of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi will own nearly 50% of the equity of a merged Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery
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Mad_as_hell (Maddie) @maddie-says.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
More than 220 people have lost their lives in these strikes without ever facing a trial. Their families and the American public deserve answers. Hold Hegseth and all others accountable under the law, which they should have applied to the people whose lives were taken. #DemVoice1 #ProudBlue #Pinks
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MadGreek 🧿 @madgreek2024.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
"Signs of Fascism" originated in my town. (Sequim, WA) I filmed it. I remember getting a call, "hey your video got 5,000 views." By the end of the day it had 60K. Over 100K in a few days from just one platform. Then my DM blew up! Everyone wanted to replicate the signs. Nice to see the signs today.
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PITT BASKETBALL SHOUTING @shouting.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
WOW. NONE OF THE TEAMS ON OUR SCHEDULE ARE GOOD AND ALSO WE'RE NOT GOOD. WHO KNOWS WHAT ADVENTURES AWAIT PITT FOOTBALL IN 2026
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