David Benfell, Ph.D. (he/him/his)

Ph.D. Human Science (Saybrook University, 2016), vegetarian ecofeminist (#vegan and #libertariansocialist) scholar, #anticapitalist. Disgusted by Republicans, furious at the Democrats.

ORCID: https://orcid.org/ 0000-0003-2641-962X
Academia: https://saybrook.academia.edu/DavidBenfell
Substack: https://substack.com/@benfell
Not Housebroken: https://nothousebroken.substack.com
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/disunitedstates.org

Last Notes

2025-10-13 14:51:38 UTC

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yes, modern agriculture is a huge problem and animal agriculture is that, figuratively and literally, on steroids.
Since moving to Edinboro, Pennsylvania, I’ve been astonished by the variety of crops grown locally. I haven’t really seen that anywhere else except California—if you count the entire state.
The expectation with the climate crisis is that arable land area will decrease. Again, plant-based diets would help, but with the loss of arable land, a lot of places, likely including California, will be less able to grow a variety of crops.
This can only exacerbate the problem.

2025-09-25 02:13:34 UTC

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the one I'd seen is here: https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/12/us/tyler-robinson-charlie-kirk-shooting-suspect-invs
And yes, they consider the possibility of a false flag. I was thinking about mentioning the Tyler Robinson analogy, but that's rather thoroughly muddled at this point as it seems his lover was transsexual--which doesn't necessarily make him a leftist, but in the conservative (overwhelmingly Mormon) parts of Utah, it's pretty hard to imagine hooking up with a transsexual unless you are.

2025-08-18 16:18:40 UTC

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I think my faint recollection derives from it being a "Federal Reserve Note," with a "note" itself signifying debt.

2025-05-09 00:50:41 UTC

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I have often thought this. Occasionally, someone must remind me that it isn't so much the 'soulless bastards' who will suffer most from the ills you list, but rather the poorest and most vulnerable among us.

2024-10-22 01:36:37 UTC

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I think a lot of people forget that a case is still pending before the International Court of Justice—and Binyamin Netanyahu has been eliminating any possibility of a finding short of genocide. Similarly, the International Criminal Court is losing any possible excuse for not issuing a warrant for Netanyahu’s arrest.
It’s important to be on the right side of an issue like this from the beginning. Now, neither Kamala Harris nor Joe Biden can backtrack, because to do so would amount to just that admission.
They’re going to end up like Henry Kissinger, having to avoid traveling to certain countries for fear of arrest.