benjamin s. yost
@benjaminsyost.bsky.social
Philosopher at Cornell. Author of *Against Capital Punishment* (Oxford 2019). Interested in legal and parental punishment. Hopeful not optimistic. benjaminsyost.net
Re: the Democrats caving on the shutdown. It seems like people think voters will reward Dems for saving ACA credits. But we have tons of evidence that voters aren't going to do that. They are too dumb to think counterfactually, i.e., "if I don't vote for P, x will happen."
November 10, 2025 at 2:14 AM
Re: the Democrats caving on the shutdown. It seems like people think voters will reward Dems for saving ACA credits. But we have tons of evidence that voters aren't going to do that. They are too dumb to think counterfactually, i.e., "if I don't vote for P, x will happen."
So Sliwa is definitely not leaving the race...
Curtis Silwa was asked if he felt okay with losing and contributing to Zohran Mamdani’s victory and he responded by laying into Bill Ackman and Andrew Cuomo.
October 19, 2025 at 3:22 PM
So Sliwa is definitely not leaving the race...
I mean I love the Epstein scandal for Donald Trump and MAGA. But come on, that letter is far, far too literate to have been written by Trump.
July 18, 2025 at 10:30 AM
I mean I love the Epstein scandal for Donald Trump and MAGA. But come on, that letter is far, far too literate to have been written by Trump.
If you have a naturalized citizen in your life (or are just a normal person who cares about others) this is worth a read. I was reassured to learn that the burden of proof in civil denaturalizations is higher than the burden of proof in normal civil cases.
I'm in @lawfaremedia.org on DOJ's new citizenship-stripping initiative. Will they try to denaturalize Mamdani, Musk, Rosie O'Donnell? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ But there's a long history here, and (for now) real legal limits.
BONUS: I link to a relevant Mamdani rap track.
www.lawfaremedia.org/article/what...
BONUS: I link to a relevant Mamdani rap track.
www.lawfaremedia.org/article/what...
What to Make of the Justice Department’s Denaturalization Initiative
The policy will terrify some naturalized citizens without cause and may dissuade others from naturalizing or coming to the United States in the first place.
www.lawfaremedia.org
July 15, 2025 at 5:33 PM
If you have a naturalized citizen in your life (or are just a normal person who cares about others) this is worth a read. I was reassured to learn that the burden of proof in civil denaturalizations is higher than the burden of proof in normal civil cases.
I'm happy to say that my paper "Defining Parental Punishment" is now out in the Southern Journal of Philosophy. It should be of interest to anyone who thinks about punishment. And parents too!
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Defining parental punishment
This article defines parental punishment, the punishment of a child by a parental figure for a prohibited act. It is important to know, for both theoretical and practical reasons, whether timeouts, v...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
July 7, 2025 at 11:17 AM
I'm happy to say that my paper "Defining Parental Punishment" is now out in the Southern Journal of Philosophy. It should be of interest to anyone who thinks about punishment. And parents too!
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Reposted by benjamin s. yost
It is very funny to think that if Sabrina Carpenter hadn’t recorded her music video at that church, Eric Adams would be headed for re-election and people wouldn’t know who Zohran Mamdani was.
June 27, 2025 at 12:35 PM
It is very funny to think that if Sabrina Carpenter hadn’t recorded her music video at that church, Eric Adams would be headed for re-election and people wouldn’t know who Zohran Mamdani was.
Reposted by benjamin s. yost
Democrat Elites : we need to spend 20 million dollars finding young energetic candidates who can engage with the youth
Zohran Mamdani : im literally the guy in the pic
Democrat Elites : not like that
Zohran Mamdani : im literally the guy in the pic
Democrat Elites : not like that
June 24, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Democrat Elites : we need to spend 20 million dollars finding young energetic candidates who can engage with the youth
Zohran Mamdani : im literally the guy in the pic
Democrat Elites : not like that
Zohran Mamdani : im literally the guy in the pic
Democrat Elites : not like that
Reposted by benjamin s. yost
I’ve never forgotten this picture from 2016 and how it completely reshaped my understanding of how the media covers protests.
But if a few people in masks start lighting stuff on fire? Then you have news. This creates an *enormous* attentional advantage towards the most violent and chaotic kind of protest.
June 11, 2025 at 1:06 PM
I’ve never forgotten this picture from 2016 and how it completely reshaped my understanding of how the media covers protests.
This happened to me. Small potatoes given the horrors of this administration, but it still sucks.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Fulbright board quits due to Trump administration’s political meddling
The resignations follow scholarship cancellations and probe into Harvard’s work with blacklisted Chinese officials
www.theguardian.com
June 11, 2025 at 7:01 PM
This happened to me. Small potatoes given the horrors of this administration, but it still sucks.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Rocking one less organ than I had yesterday...
May 30, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Rocking one less organ than I had yesterday...
A note on the Khalil case - while the standard for criminal charges is indeed material support to a terrorist organization, the standard for revocation of a immigration status is the much less friendly "endorses or espouses terrorist activity or persuades others to [do the same]"
March 10, 2025 at 9:46 PM
What's happening to Mahmoud Khalil is horrendous. But folks are acting like this is some crossing of the Rubicon, when in Chicago alone, thousands of people have been disappeared through regular old policing. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015...
Homan Square revealed: how Chicago police 'disappeared' 7,000 people
Exclusive: Lawsuit exposes scale of detention at off-the-books interrogation warehouse while attorneys describe find-your-client chase ‘from a Bond movie’
www.theguardian.com
March 10, 2025 at 4:56 PM
What's happening to Mahmoud Khalil is horrendous. But folks are acting like this is some crossing of the Rubicon, when in Chicago alone, thousands of people have been disappeared through regular old policing. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015...
Sometimes Reviewer 2 is an asshole, but has some good points nonetheless.
March 10, 2025 at 4:27 PM
Sometimes Reviewer 2 is an asshole, but has some good points nonetheless.
Reposted by benjamin s. yost
(This ruling freezes the preliminary injunction that Judge Jackson had entered on Saturday—which, consistent with her earlier TRO, had ordered Dellinger’s reinstatement.)
More background here: www.stevevladeck.com/p/125-the-co...
More background here: www.stevevladeck.com/p/125-the-co...
125. The Court's First Trump II Case Won't Be a Bellwether
The challenge to Trump's removal of the head of the Office of Special Counsel raises unique procedural and substantive issues likely to prevent it from serving as a referendum—in either direction.
www.stevevladeck.com
March 5, 2025 at 11:42 PM
(This ruling freezes the preliminary injunction that Judge Jackson had entered on Saturday—which, consistent with her earlier TRO, had ordered Dellinger’s reinstatement.)
More background here: www.stevevladeck.com/p/125-the-co...
More background here: www.stevevladeck.com/p/125-the-co...
Reposted by benjamin s. yost
to the people tempted to shout at wyden to do something, this *is* doing something. reading this *is* the thing he can do. you getting outraged and calling *your republican senators* on the committee is the thing *you* are supposed to do.
NEW: Sources tell my office that Treasury Secretary Bessent has granted DOGE *full* access to this system. Social Security and Medicare benefits, grants, payments to government contractors, including those that compete directly with Musk's own companies. All of it.
NEWS: Wyden Demands Answers Following Report of Musk Personnel Seeking Access to Highly Sensitive U.S. Treasury Payments System
February 1, 2025 at 8:47 PM
to the people tempted to shout at wyden to do something, this *is* doing something. reading this *is* the thing he can do. you getting outraged and calling *your republican senators* on the committee is the thing *you* are supposed to do.
Reposted by benjamin s. yost
➡️ January 20: FAA director fired
➡️ January 21: Air Traffic Controller hiring frozen
➡️ January 22: Aviation Safety Advisory Committee disbanded
➡️ January 28: Buyout/retirement demand sent to existing employees
➡️ January 29: First American mid-air collision in 16 years
Making America Great Again!
➡️ January 21: Air Traffic Controller hiring frozen
➡️ January 22: Aviation Safety Advisory Committee disbanded
➡️ January 28: Buyout/retirement demand sent to existing employees
➡️ January 29: First American mid-air collision in 16 years
Making America Great Again!
January 30, 2025 at 3:37 PM
➡️ January 20: FAA director fired
➡️ January 21: Air Traffic Controller hiring frozen
➡️ January 22: Aviation Safety Advisory Committee disbanded
➡️ January 28: Buyout/retirement demand sent to existing employees
➡️ January 29: First American mid-air collision in 16 years
Making America Great Again!
➡️ January 21: Air Traffic Controller hiring frozen
➡️ January 22: Aviation Safety Advisory Committee disbanded
➡️ January 28: Buyout/retirement demand sent to existing employees
➡️ January 29: First American mid-air collision in 16 years
Making America Great Again!
Holy crap! (Hero @marisakabas.bsky.social deserves a follow by everyone.)
🚨 BREAKING: OMB has just issued a memo *rescinding* the previous memo freezing all federal financial assistance programs.
Full text, per government source:
Full text, per government source:
January 29, 2025 at 5:55 PM
Holy crap! (Hero @marisakabas.bsky.social deserves a follow by everyone.)
This is so spot on. (Though there will probably also be spectacle too.) "The violence of police and prisons... is background noise to most people in the US."
“Criminalization is the indispensable fuel of fascism. It is central to the fascist project; not a peripheral issue.”
Read @prisonculture.bsky.social in conversation with @mskellymhayes.bsky.social
organizingmythoughts.org/wading-into-...
Read @prisonculture.bsky.social in conversation with @mskellymhayes.bsky.social
organizingmythoughts.org/wading-into-...
January 21, 2025 at 4:41 PM
This is so spot on. (Though there will probably also be spectacle too.) "The violence of police and prisons... is background noise to most people in the US."
Reposted by benjamin s. yost
Respectfully (and I genuinely mean this), I’ve never heard a single regular person ask for “bipartisanship.” That’s inside nonsense.
They want things to work.
If the other party refuses to work for people, be the ones who will. Fight for people. Make it plain who isn’t, and who THEY’RE for.
They want things to work.
If the other party refuses to work for people, be the ones who will. Fight for people. Make it plain who isn’t, and who THEY’RE for.
It is time to look to the future.
The challenges that face America are many and great.
The Senate must respond with resolve, bipartisanship, and fidelity to the working and middle class of this country.
The challenges that face America are many and great.
The Senate must respond with resolve, bipartisanship, and fidelity to the working and middle class of this country.
January 21, 2025 at 2:00 AM
Respectfully (and I genuinely mean this), I’ve never heard a single regular person ask for “bipartisanship.” That’s inside nonsense.
They want things to work.
If the other party refuses to work for people, be the ones who will. Fight for people. Make it plain who isn’t, and who THEY’RE for.
They want things to work.
If the other party refuses to work for people, be the ones who will. Fight for people. Make it plain who isn’t, and who THEY’RE for.
Democrats and Republicans are not the same. But on the eve of Trump's inauguration, it's important to note that when it comes to monstrous policy, they are pretty damn close.
equalityalec.substack.com/p/the-enduri...
equalityalec.substack.com/p/the-enduri...
The Enduring Power of Copaganda
An unprecedented new immigration detention law and the propaganda behind it
equalityalec.substack.com
January 17, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Democrats and Republicans are not the same. But on the eve of Trump's inauguration, it's important to note that when it comes to monstrous policy, they are pretty damn close.
equalityalec.substack.com/p/the-enduri...
equalityalec.substack.com/p/the-enduri...
I'm glad Biden commuted all but three federal death sentences. But he should have commuted them all. Here I explain why.
blog.apaonline.org/2024/02/12/m...
blog.apaonline.org/2024/02/12/m...
May We Execute Even the Worst Murderers?
On October 27, 2018, the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh was hosting Shabbat services when Robert Bowers entered the building and opened fire. He murdered 11 congregants and injured two others be...
blog.apaonline.org
December 24, 2024 at 6:22 PM
I'm glad Biden commuted all but three federal death sentences. But he should have commuted them all. Here I explain why.
blog.apaonline.org/2024/02/12/m...
blog.apaonline.org/2024/02/12/m...
Cornell has billions of $. During the pandemic, I taught in rooms (not Arts and Sciences rooms, mind you) with $$$ large screen monitors. My spring writing seminar room has a totally insufficient tiny whiteboard. I asked for another, and was told it was too expensive. What are we even doing here?
December 20, 2024 at 6:05 PM
Cornell has billions of $. During the pandemic, I taught in rooms (not Arts and Sciences rooms, mind you) with $$$ large screen monitors. My spring writing seminar room has a totally insufficient tiny whiteboard. I asked for another, and was told it was too expensive. What are we even doing here?
Power to them!
Amazon delivery drivers at seven hubs are striking just before Christmas because the company “pushed workers to the limit,” a union said
Amazon Drivers Just Went On Strike
The union said the walkouts hit facilities in New York, California, Georgia and Illinois less than a week before Christmas.
www.huffpost.com
December 19, 2024 at 7:14 PM
Power to them!
Reposted by benjamin s. yost
One bad commutation produces ten thousand times the outrage of thousands of unnecessary incarcerations.
If you are chiming in only now, ask yourself why you are demanding perfection here, but not on those we lock up in our sadistic prisons?
Why does mercy anger you but cruelty does not?
If you are chiming in only now, ask yourself why you are demanding perfection here, but not on those we lock up in our sadistic prisons?
Why does mercy anger you but cruelty does not?
December 15, 2024 at 4:27 AM
One bad commutation produces ten thousand times the outrage of thousands of unnecessary incarcerations.
If you are chiming in only now, ask yourself why you are demanding perfection here, but not on those we lock up in our sadistic prisons?
Why does mercy anger you but cruelty does not?
If you are chiming in only now, ask yourself why you are demanding perfection here, but not on those we lock up in our sadistic prisons?
Why does mercy anger you but cruelty does not?
I suppose Americans might take to the streets in the same way if they thought it would bring down the price of eggs.
www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...
www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...
South Korean martial law decree ‘invalid’, says National Assembly chairman, as troops begin to withdraw – live updates
Woo Won-sik says president Yoon Suk Yeol should lift declaration immediately after vote to block it; troops reportedly starting withdrawal from parliament
www.theguardian.com
December 3, 2024 at 6:02 PM
I suppose Americans might take to the streets in the same way if they thought it would bring down the price of eggs.
www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...
www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...