Sam Cohen
@samcohen.bsky.social
Teaching, writing about books, music. Views mine, all mine, nobody else's, least of all my employer's. https://samuelscohen.com/
Pinned
Listened to the 1954 Harold Brodkey story "State of Grace" while on my walk yesterday and holy cow
November 10, 2025 at 9:01 PM
Listened to the 1954 Harold Brodkey story "State of Grace" while on my walk yesterday and holy cow
Reposted by Sam Cohen
LLM AI “is everything that higher education should not be: exploitative, non-consensual, inaccurate, corrosive of cognitive growth and human relationships, destructive of people and the environment, and effectively unregulated.”
Hit the breaking point this morning with Michigan after hearing about their planned data center in Ypsi. Put all my in-progress posts on the back burner to write this (which I have also sent to UMGiving).
substack.com/@kconrad/not...
substack.com/@kconrad/not...
A letter to my alma mater
on their embrace of AI
substack.com
November 10, 2025 at 8:39 PM
LLM AI “is everything that higher education should not be: exploitative, non-consensual, inaccurate, corrosive of cognitive growth and human relationships, destructive of people and the environment, and effectively unregulated.”
Ended banned books class this morning by saying that neat endings to works of literature can imply that the world makes sense and Maus ends the way it does because it's implying that the world is a terrifying, horrifying place that doesn't make sense and then I sent them off into the world and oy
November 10, 2025 at 5:28 PM
Ended banned books class this morning by saying that neat endings to works of literature can imply that the world makes sense and Maus ends the way it does because it's implying that the world is a terrifying, horrifying place that doesn't make sense and then I sent them off into the world and oy
Reposted by Sam Cohen
These eight senators are pathetic
Democratic Senator Shaheen says "Hopefully the Republicans may hear us."
November 10, 2025 at 5:14 PM
These eight senators are pathetic
🤷♂️
If Schumer is voting no, then who put this deal together?
November 10, 2025 at 1:19 AM
🤷♂️
Reposted by Sam Cohen
i think this is key. taking the deal would amount to taking the blame. it would turn a clear political victory into an unambiguous defeat.
If the Dems blink after all of this, for a deal that all but ensures no ACA subsidies in 2026 anyway, then what was the purpose of letting the shutdown go for 40 days in the first place?
November 10, 2025 at 12:56 AM
i think this is key. taking the deal would amount to taking the blame. it would turn a clear political victory into an unambiguous defeat.
Reposted by Sam Cohen
At this point I’m convinced the only training these weekend warriors receive is viewing the first hour of Sicario.
Video on social media shows an immigration agent pulling a gun in Little Village and holding it to the side — which is not an appropriate or safe way to hold a gun. (Among other issues.)
November 9, 2025 at 4:26 PM
At this point I’m convinced the only training these weekend warriors receive is viewing the first hour of Sicario.
Avoided the news this morning with this fun B noir with a publishing angle
November 9, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Avoided the news this morning with this fun B noir with a publishing angle
Reposted by Sam Cohen
This is Nuremberg Laws shit
1/ The US Government has quietly removed a memorial to Black soldiers who died in World War II from the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, South Limburg. The move follows a complaint from the right-wing Heritage Foundation to the American Battle Monuments Commission. ⬇️
November 9, 2025 at 3:34 PM
This is Nuremberg Laws shit
Reposted by Sam Cohen
This is an absolutely insane administrative process. Within the space of a week, states were told by judges/White House
*no SNAP benefits
*half benefits
*full benefits
*pause provision of benefits.
Result is chaos, uncertainty, and uneven access to benefits depending on where people live.
*no SNAP benefits
*half benefits
*full benefits
*pause provision of benefits.
Result is chaos, uncertainty, and uneven access to benefits depending on where people live.
NEW: The Trump admin told states it must immediately "undo" the work to provide full food stamp benefits, or face penalties. The feds sent this in a late-night memo, only adding to the chaos and confusion around SNAP. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/09/b...
Trump Administration Demands States ‘Undo’ Work to Send Full Food Stamps
www.nytimes.com
November 9, 2025 at 2:34 PM
This is an absolutely insane administrative process. Within the space of a week, states were told by judges/White House
*no SNAP benefits
*half benefits
*full benefits
*pause provision of benefits.
Result is chaos, uncertainty, and uneven access to benefits depending on where people live.
*no SNAP benefits
*half benefits
*full benefits
*pause provision of benefits.
Result is chaos, uncertainty, and uneven access to benefits depending on where people live.
🎯
An incredibly macabre irony that at the same moment mass language archives are being looted to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars, our own public access to our preeminent form of archiving language is being slowly strangled to death.
Yes! The thing abt public libraries that is so beautiful & crucial is the idea that *anybody* could do this — you need no credential, there’s no gatekeeping, literally any person can be an intellectual. You can come from absolutely nothing & yet, by means of curiosity + work, create real knowledge
November 9, 2025 at 3:07 AM
🎯
Reposted by Sam Cohen
I wrote a significant chunk of my first book at a Chicago Public Library, an amazing public space where people could read books and newspapers, access the internet, or just keep warm for a while on a cold day. This is appalling.
CPL is an absolute palace to the people and these proposed cuts are abominable. Artificial austerity. Chicago folks, read this, check the links to bug the mayor and your alders—this can be fought and won.
The People Want to Read: on the massive budget cuts proposed for Chicago Public Library. What's at stake and what you can do, whether or not you live in Chicago.
buttondown.com/wellsourced/...
buttondown.com/wellsourced/...
November 8, 2025 at 10:25 PM
I wrote a significant chunk of my first book at a Chicago Public Library, an amazing public space where people could read books and newspapers, access the internet, or just keep warm for a while on a cold day. This is appalling.
Reposted by Sam Cohen
Not ICE. Border Patrol. They’re wearing Border Patrol uniforms with clear Border Patrol patches on them.
There are many videos of ICE officers doing outrageous stuff but a lot of the absolute worst videos are of Border Patrol, who are basically Bovino and Miller’s most aggressive tool right now.
There are many videos of ICE officers doing outrageous stuff but a lot of the absolute worst videos are of Border Patrol, who are basically Bovino and Miller’s most aggressive tool right now.
ICE agents in Chicago violently detain a non verbal autistic man for being “non compliant”
He couldn’t “comply” because of his disability…they don’t care
This is not the first time they’ve gone after a disabled person
They target the most vulnerable because it’s an easy way to meet their quota
He couldn’t “comply” because of his disability…they don’t care
This is not the first time they’ve gone after a disabled person
They target the most vulnerable because it’s an easy way to meet their quota
November 8, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Not ICE. Border Patrol. They’re wearing Border Patrol uniforms with clear Border Patrol patches on them.
There are many videos of ICE officers doing outrageous stuff but a lot of the absolute worst videos are of Border Patrol, who are basically Bovino and Miller’s most aggressive tool right now.
There are many videos of ICE officers doing outrageous stuff but a lot of the absolute worst videos are of Border Patrol, who are basically Bovino and Miller’s most aggressive tool right now.
🤷♂️
In the name of "fighting antisemitism," Indiana University appointed a Christian scholar to tell Jewish scholars what they can and cannot say - all while they invited Tucker Carlson to speak on campus. www.jta.org/2025/11/07/u...
In Indiana, a vaunted Jewish studies program is upended by red-state politics over Israel and speech - Jewish Telegraphic Agency
A leadership shakeup, a defunded graduate student and political pressure from above have turned a storied program into a flashpoint for Trump-era campus politics.
www.jta.org
November 8, 2025 at 1:10 PM
🤷♂️
Jesus Christ
Cornell agrees to include Bondi's anti-DEI/anti-trans memo as a "training resource to faculty and staff" (see: www.justice.gov/ag/media/140...)
November 7, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Jesus Christ
Now do gutting gun laws
Missouri anti-LGBTQ+ laws linked to population loss and decline in tax revenue, studies find #moleg #mogov
Missouri anti-LGBTQ+ laws linked to population loss and decline in tax revenue, studies find • Missouri Independent
Researchers and business leaders warn that discriminatory laws are pushing LGBTQ+ Missourians and employers to leave the state.
missouriindependent.com
November 7, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Now do gutting gun laws
Shameful
Cornell has reached an agreement with the federal government to restore our funding:
statements.cornell.edu/2025/2025110...
statements.cornell.edu/2025/2025110...
An agreement to restore Cornell’s federal research funding | University Statements | Cornell University
statements.cornell.edu
November 7, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Shameful
🧵
A family friend was telling us about what her husband shared about his experience in Broadview before he was deported back to Mexico. She's been sharing to friends and family because she's just in disbelief & horror what her husband told her. She wasn't able to talk to him until he was in Mexico.
November 7, 2025 at 2:41 PM
🧵
Reposted by Sam Cohen
To put this in scale, Elon Musk's salary from Tesla alone could fund the SNAP program for the entire country into 2034.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk scored a resounding victory on Thursday as shareholders approved a pay package of as much as $878 billion over the next decade, endorsing his vision of morphing the EV maker into an AI and robotics juggernaut.
Tesla shareholders approve $878 billion pay plan for Elon Musk
Tesla CEO Elon Musk scored a resounding victory on Thursday as shareholders approved a pay package of as much as $878 billion over the next decade, endorsing his vision of morphing the EV maker into an AI and robotics juggernaut.
reut.rs
November 6, 2025 at 10:19 PM
To put this in scale, Elon Musk's salary from Tesla alone could fund the SNAP program for the entire country into 2034.
Reposted by Sam Cohen
So to be clear, you can throw sandwiches at them mfs?
November 6, 2025 at 9:00 PM
So to be clear, you can throw sandwiches at them mfs?
Reposted by Sam Cohen
The dramatic repudiation of Trump this week wrecks a number of absurd narratives the media has pushed lately. In the runup to the election, NYT pieces kept telling us Dems were overly obsessed with attacking Trump.
That dumb idea now lies in ruins. 1/
(new piece)
newrepublic.com/article/2027...
That dumb idea now lies in ruins. 1/
(new piece)
newrepublic.com/article/2027...
Trump Humiliation Worsens as Fresh Info Reveals Scale of GOP Losses
The results showed that Democrats don’t have to choose between attacking Trump and highlighting the economy. In fact, they are often inseparable.
newrepublic.com
November 6, 2025 at 12:30 PM
The dramatic repudiation of Trump this week wrecks a number of absurd narratives the media has pushed lately. In the runup to the election, NYT pieces kept telling us Dems were overly obsessed with attacking Trump.
That dumb idea now lies in ruins. 1/
(new piece)
newrepublic.com/article/2027...
That dumb idea now lies in ruins. 1/
(new piece)
newrepublic.com/article/2027...
180 reading responses down, 0 to go
November 6, 2025 at 8:17 PM
180 reading responses down, 0 to go
