Ben
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bentopp.bsky.social
Ben
@bentopp.bsky.social
Wisconsin native - current Chicagoan. Go Pack Go!
Reposted by Ben
Beating the shit out of a divisional rival, even with a playcalling so conservative, Waukesha County is going to ask Matt LaFleur to run for office.
November 23, 2025 at 8:26 PM
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It feels EXTREMELY weird that Packers-Lions is on CBS.
September 7, 2025 at 8:21 PM
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📣 Re. the Wisconsin Supreme Court race on April 1st:

If @crawfordforwi.bsky.social wins, it means Democrats have a fair, reasonable shot at flipping control of the state legislature since the NON-gerrymandered districts would remain in place for 2026. 1/
March 22, 2025 at 3:48 PM
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this is a good example of the attitude that has led democrats down the road to disaster. it rests on the belief that public opinion cannot be shaped or mobilized or moved, only reacted to
February 14, 2025 at 1:41 AM
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do you know how bad you have to be as president to make the Luka to Lakers thing the 2nd dumbest trade related news of the last 24hrs
February 2, 2025 at 2:04 PM
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i think it is important to say that the open and explicit racism of the president and the vice president isn’t just uncouth or “controversial” but a direct attack on tens of millions of americans and a dereliction of their duty to represent the entire country
January 30, 2025 at 9:09 PM
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One thing about me is that I will fight Nazis until I’m six feet in the ground.
January 24, 2025 at 1:24 AM
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Hey, couple notes on your post. Personally I think it's fine. Totally get it. But someone I imagined, in my head, might not like it. They haven't seen it yet but I'm just saying, if they did. They might freak out a little bit. Anyway take it down or I'm calling the cops
January 19, 2025 at 11:48 PM
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Really great write-up here on what the DNC actually spends it's money on.

cauldronllc.substack.com/p/what-did-t...
What Did The DNC Do This Cycle?
Examining yet more FEC filings
cauldronllc.substack.com
January 19, 2025 at 11:20 PM
Reposted by Ben
Good surprises since 2020:
Old people became way more Democratic
EC bias declined
R's have nominated terrible candidates

Bad surprises:
Zoomers are really right wing now
Tech moving right
Non-white support cratered faster than I thought it would
TikTok has been really bad
January 12, 2025 at 4:03 PM
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My favorite part of Zuckerberg's Joe Rogan interview is when he suggests there is not enough masculine energy at his company, where two out of every three employees is a man.
January 12, 2025 at 5:34 PM
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The amount but more importantly the quality of the responses to this plea for help was outstanding, beyond what I’ve experienced on any social network ever.

Thank you to everyone who weighed in.
Currently trying to find nursing home type facilities that can accommodate someone in their 70s who has a complex neurological condition and needs high acuity care for the remainder of their life, which probably won’t be long.

Why is this so hard. Any advice welcome.
December 29, 2024 at 2:16 PM
Reposted by Ben
People sometimes make fun of science that sounds stupid and random.

Meanwhile, a study of lizard saliva turned into a peptide medication, which was turned into a diabetes medication, which was turned into a GLP1 weight loss drug, that just became the first therapy every approved for … sleep apnea
Breaking News: The FDA approved use of the weight loss drug Zepbound for a common form of sleep apnea. It is the first drug authorized to treat the disorder.
F.D.A. Approves Weight-Loss Drug to Treat Sleep Apnea
Zepbound is the first prescription drug approved specifically to treat the common condition.
www.nytimes.com
December 21, 2024 at 12:41 AM
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We are all Buffalo Bills fans today
December 15, 2024 at 9:42 PM
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A truly important (and obvious, even banal) point that really can’t be stressed enough: sometimes majorities get things really really wrong!
"54% of Britons who voted leave, including 59% of voters in “red wall seats”, said in exchange for single market access they would now accept full free movement for EU and UK citizens to travel, live and work across borders." https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/dec/12/majority-of-brexit-voter…
Majority of Brexit voters ‘would accept free movement’ to access single market
Europe-wide polling finds UK and EU leaders now out of step with public opinion and pursue ‘ambitious reset’
buff.ly
December 12, 2024 at 12:43 PM
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i think it is important to clarify that this — the exclusionary distribution of benefits on some sort of ethnic or national basis — isn’t socialism. it’s, you know, something else.
After years of talking to Trump supporters my view of them has become very simple: They want socialist, even sometimes progressive reforms but they want them from someone who makes those reforms feel powerful and masculine and they want to make sure the people they don't like don't benefit from them
we're cooked
December 10, 2024 at 8:56 PM
Reposted by Ben
I have an op-ed in the NYT today about how to reduce crime.

The key idea, based on decades of strong research evidence: focus on increasing the probability of getting caught, not the punishment.

www.nytimes.com/2024/12/07/o...
December 7, 2024 at 12:16 PM
Reposted by Ben
I thought that was a fair point so in this piece I am trying to be more specific and explicit that we clearly saw a large backlash (including to an extent with non-white voters) to Biden’s approach to asylum.

www.slowboring.com/p/the-new-po...
December 5, 2024 at 12:38 PM
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It is a little funny to me that you focus on “evasion” in this piece because my longstanding issue with your attempts to write in this mode is that you are evasive. It is not just the phrasing “racists based on their cultural views,” as if some cultural views aren’t racist.
December 5, 2024 at 12:35 PM