Benjamin Not Ben 🍉
@benjaminvandyne.bsky.social
Benjamin not Ben
Papa not Dad
Union Organizer
Hand-tool Woodworker
Theology PhD Dropout
He/him/él
Papa not Dad
Union Organizer
Hand-tool Woodworker
Theology PhD Dropout
He/him/él
I have norovirus, if anyone knows how to get me invited
On tonight’s White House agenda:
Trump and guests will get a private screening of MELANIA, the documentary about the First Lady, @thr.com reports.
Attendees include Apple CEO Tim Cook, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, Mike Tyson, per the article.
Trump and guests will get a private screening of MELANIA, the documentary about the First Lady, @thr.com reports.
Attendees include Apple CEO Tim Cook, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, Mike Tyson, per the article.
January 25, 2026 at 2:57 AM
I have norovirus, if anyone knows how to get me invited
Reposted by Benjamin Not Ben 🍉
The US is hurtling towards a showdown between state and local authorities.
America keeps rolling the dice. It has been astonishingly lucky so far, but that luck will not hold forever. Something will snap eventually.
America keeps rolling the dice. It has been astonishingly lucky so far, but that luck will not hold forever. Something will snap eventually.
From the same link: “ICE attempted to order local police from the scene, but [police chief] O’Hara refused, sources said. O’Hara instructed his officers to preserve the scene.”
January 25, 2026 at 2:43 AM
The US is hurtling towards a showdown between state and local authorities.
America keeps rolling the dice. It has been astonishingly lucky so far, but that luck will not hold forever. Something will snap eventually.
America keeps rolling the dice. It has been astonishingly lucky so far, but that luck will not hold forever. Something will snap eventually.
There are about three hours left in which you can be a politician who “supported abolishing ICE” rather than one who “has to answer questions forever about why they didn’t support abolishing ICE”
January 25, 2026 at 2:54 AM
There are about three hours left in which you can be a politician who “supported abolishing ICE” rather than one who “has to answer questions forever about why they didn’t support abolishing ICE”
As a Disney Parks nerd, I follow dozens of Disney influencers on Instagram and a whole lot of them are posting about abolishing ICE. The idea has broken containment.
man the stuff i am seeing on IG from
the most normie, i don’t really talk about politics accounts suggests something different
the most normie, i don’t really talk about politics accounts suggests something different
January 25, 2026 at 2:50 AM
Reposted by Benjamin Not Ben 🍉
To string together sentences under the circumstances facing these parents is more heroic than anything many of us will ever do.
Kare 11 local news just read, in full, this statement from Michael and Susan Pretti, the parents of Alex Pretti.
"Please get the truth out about our son."
"Please get the truth out about our son."
January 25, 2026 at 12:59 AM
To string together sentences under the circumstances facing these parents is more heroic than anything many of us will ever do.
This statement sucks and is why cops are not part of the labor movement, even when they nominally are.
AFGE Local 3669 statement:
January 25, 2026 at 2:40 AM
This statement sucks and is why cops are not part of the labor movement, even when they nominally are.
Reposted by Benjamin Not Ben 🍉
Nonviolence is, in fact, working. This administration is weaker than it was a year ago. More and more of the public is becoming galvanized against it; its agents are being impeded.
Do you honestly think people in the civil rights movement and other nonviolent movements faced no violence themselves? They practiced nonviolence because it works, because the oppressor wants a shooting war, which is the war it will win
How's your non-violent working Mr Gandhi stancil? They will kill each and everyone of you right if they had the chance and you will still be writing Kumbaya.
January 24, 2026 at 9:53 PM
Nonviolence is, in fact, working. This administration is weaker than it was a year ago. More and more of the public is becoming galvanized against it; its agents are being impeded.
Reposted by Benjamin Not Ben 🍉
YouGov is out with a new poll after ICE killed another person in Minnesota today. Abolishing ICE is now +5 among all adults, and **+12 among independents**
substack.com/@gelliottmor...
substack.com/@gelliottmor...
January 25, 2026 at 2:10 AM
YouGov is out with a new poll after ICE killed another person in Minnesota today. Abolishing ICE is now +5 among all adults, and **+12 among independents**
substack.com/@gelliottmor...
substack.com/@gelliottmor...
The death of civic structures has been greatly exaggerated, it seems.
January 25, 2026 at 2:30 AM
The death of civic structures has been greatly exaggerated, it seems.
Reposted by Benjamin Not Ben 🍉
It's astonishing, but this is sanctionable misconduct in that case, and also criminally referable. A party to a case is literally threatening the other, with violence and retaliation, outside of the court. This is no different from walking up to them on the courthouse steps and threatening a party.
January 24, 2026 at 8:15 PM
It's astonishing, but this is sanctionable misconduct in that case, and also criminally referable. A party to a case is literally threatening the other, with violence and retaliation, outside of the court. This is no different from walking up to them on the courthouse steps and threatening a party.
Don’t give the dumb post any air
January 25, 2026 at 2:12 AM
Don’t give the dumb post any air
This thread is really helpful and thinking about the function of the second amendment but it’s also worth being clear that the second amendment is also not gonna help you have a revolution because revolutions require more than people with guns. They require social structures of trust.
To further clarify what I'm talking about here, the modern 2A cult has always hinged on this idea that every armed citizen is part of some crowdsourced militia that is ready to stand against a tyrannical government.
This is a lie, and your guns will not work for that purpose.
This is a lie, and your guns will not work for that purpose.
This is why I remind anyone in the "time to buy a gun" crowd: the Second Amendment is not for you. American gun culture is not for you.
You are not in on the con.
You are not in on the con.
January 25, 2026 at 2:10 AM
This thread is really helpful and thinking about the function of the second amendment but it’s also worth being clear that the second amendment is also not gonna help you have a revolution because revolutions require more than people with guns. They require social structures of trust.
Reposted by Benjamin Not Ben 🍉
The "riots in 2020" didn't cost you anything. It didn't cost Will Stancil anything. They were going to continue to ruthlessly murder Black people and they have. Donald Trump didn't win because of that and if your instinct is to blame protests for ICE, you're an op.
January 25, 2026 at 2:07 AM
The "riots in 2020" didn't cost you anything. It didn't cost Will Stancil anything. They were going to continue to ruthlessly murder Black people and they have. Donald Trump didn't win because of that and if your instinct is to blame protests for ICE, you're an op.
Reposted by Benjamin Not Ben 🍉
Important words from the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota, where I served as a priest before moving to Texas. ⚓️
![Fellow Americans,
Things are impossibly hard in [MN] right now. We are a state that feels under siege, and the people of this place are doing everything possible to resist. The campaign of reckless brutality being waged by the federal goverment has been well documented, including today's killing of a citizen who was restrained and immobilized. The clear evidence of what's happening exposes cartoonish lies from federal agencies that echo the most cynical propaganda machines in human history. The images are clear, and we are told, don't believe what you see.
But there is also something much more powerful, and not as widely reported, happening. We are mobilizing for revolutionary love. Vast networks of care, compassion, and solidarity, organized by churches to deliver food and supplies to those who cannot leave their homes. People are documenting the violence being used against us in a way that puts their own lives at risk. People are standing guard outside schools and daycares, and at bus stops to protect our children from real risks of harm. Others are taking turns watching each others' kids stuck in online learning because some schools aren't safe. Health care workers are bravely caring for people in hospitals that also are no longer safe, and risking being targets of arrest and detention for protecting the patients. A rich web of underground care and hidden love is taking deep root, and it's amazing to think what fruit that might bear when this occupation ends.
Minnesotans cannot do more than we are doing. Here are a few ways you can help.
1) Please flood your US senators with appeals to not to further fund ICE, by rejecting a bill the US House has already passed. Please flood all your members of congress with calls for deescalation in [MN]; for ICE, [CBP], and other federal agents to leave [MN] now; and to write and pass legislation that requires proper and extensive training for all those working for the federal government in our states and local communities.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:jygcwdjhliwj2tnlr34utncd/bafkreihgvgiqexyity7awki36is7vrluy5jrovhwnyenfhlmicyvwmorqy@jpeg)
January 25, 2026 at 1:45 AM
Important words from the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota, where I served as a priest before moving to Texas. ⚓️
One of the things I’ve become aware of since being off here is the degree to which my politics—at the margins, but decisively—have been shaped by dopamine. Curious to ease back in here but I’m on guard against that.
January 25, 2026 at 1:51 AM
One of the things I’ve become aware of since being off here is the degree to which my politics—at the margins, but decisively—have been shaped by dopamine. Curious to ease back in here but I’m on guard against that.
Nuremberg is the compromise.
January 25, 2026 at 1:48 AM
Nuremberg is the compromise.
It’s a union town for real.
Yesterday, we joined tens of thousands to march.
This am, ICE responded with violence.
Alex was an ICU nurse, a union sibling, & an observer who stepped in to help.
This is a union state. We will continue to show up, to watch, to document, and fight
ICE is not welcome here.
This am, ICE responded with violence.
Alex was an ICU nurse, a union sibling, & an observer who stepped in to help.
This is a union state. We will continue to show up, to watch, to document, and fight
ICE is not welcome here.
January 25, 2026 at 1:39 AM
It’s a union town for real.
But asking the follow-up question of the politicians saying it also seems worth doing!
I don’t necessarily believe that the intent of the “Trump’s ICE” framing is to open a space for other versions of ICE to persist. I think it’s also an effort to true ICE’s unpopularity to Trump, which… seems worth doing.
January 25, 2026 at 1:29 AM
But asking the follow-up question of the politicians saying it also seems worth doing!
If we all do this right, having been right about ICE when it mattered will be like having been against the Iraq War in 2003: political rocket fuel.
As tens of thousands across America protest the violence that ICE sows with impunity, federal agents shot and killed another person in Minneapolis today.
ICE terrorizes our cities. ICE puts us all in danger. Abolish ICE.
January 25, 2026 at 1:28 AM
If we all do this right, having been right about ICE when it mattered will be like having been against the Iraq War in 2003: political rocket fuel.
Reposted by Benjamin Not Ben 🍉
You have to read this. Firsthand affidavit from one of the women who was there and recording the video. She talks about how Alex Pretti was directing traffic when she arrived. She watched him be killed in front of her. She's afraid to go home, worried she'll be arrested.
January 25, 2026 at 1:15 AM
You have to read this. Firsthand affidavit from one of the women who was there and recording the video. She talks about how Alex Pretti was directing traffic when she arrived. She watched him be killed in front of her. She's afraid to go home, worried she'll be arrested.
I don’t necessarily believe that the intent of the “Trump’s ICE” framing is to open a space for other versions of ICE to persist. I think it’s also an effort to true ICE’s unpopularity to Trump, which… seems worth doing.
January 25, 2026 at 1:23 AM
I don’t necessarily believe that the intent of the “Trump’s ICE” framing is to open a space for other versions of ICE to persist. I think it’s also an effort to true ICE’s unpopularity to Trump, which… seems worth doing.
or better put than I did:
my gut tells me american politics are about to shift radically within the next few days, as this rubicon crossing event occurs with both sides heading toward snowstorm-induced isolation and online algorithms
January 25, 2026 at 1:10 AM
or better put than I did:
Between the ice storm and the ICE stormtroopers, I think the cabin-fever online discourse foment and actual actions in the streets are going to shift some things permanently over the next few days.
January 25, 2026 at 1:09 AM
Between the ice storm and the ICE stormtroopers, I think the cabin-fever online discourse foment and actual actions in the streets are going to shift some things permanently over the next few days.
To string together sentences under the circumstances facing these parents is more heroic than anything many of us will ever do.
Kare 11 local news just read, in full, this statement from Michael and Susan Pretti, the parents of Alex Pretti.
"Please get the truth out about our son."
"Please get the truth out about our son."
January 25, 2026 at 12:59 AM
To string together sentences under the circumstances facing these parents is more heroic than anything many of us will ever do.
Sorry but I think this is an absolutely bonkers misread by Murphy. It is about what it is obviously about. The significance of this letter, if it’s real, is that they are looking for an off-ramp that lets them say they won.
Pam Bondi just sent a letter to Minnesota officials saying ICE will leave if the state turns over its voter database to Trump.
Guess what? This has never been about safety or immigration. It’s a pretext for Trump to take over elections in swing states.
Guess what? This has never been about safety or immigration. It’s a pretext for Trump to take over elections in swing states.
January 25, 2026 at 12:57 AM
Sorry but I think this is an absolutely bonkers misread by Murphy. It is about what it is obviously about. The significance of this letter, if it’s real, is that they are looking for an off-ramp that lets them say they won.