Ben Wetzler
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voteben.nyc
Ben Wetzler
@voteben.nyc
2.7K followers 570 following 640 posts
2025 candidate for NYC Council. Fmr East Side Democratic District Leader. Public servant. Views do not reflect those of my employer. www.voteben.nyc
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voteben.nyc
Screen grab of the Mandalorian with the caption "this is the way."
January 6, 2026 at 5:19 PM
voteben.nyc
Okay. Let's do it, I guess.
A post from Merriam Webster saying "take a screenshot of this GIF, and whichever new word it lands on is YOUR word for 2026. Let's. Go." My word is "potato."
January 3, 2026 at 1:28 AM
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100 million is every single person of color in the US. They've given up pretending this has anything to do with "illegals" or drug cartels or whatever. Just a straight up call for ethnic cleansing.
A tweet from DHS saying "the peace of a nation no longer besieged by the third world." Below is a photo of a car on an idyllic beach with palm trees and a caption "America after 100 million deportations."
January 1, 2026 at 4:00 PM
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Your annual reminder that Scrooge's major act of redemption was to show up uninvited to Ms. Cratchet's house, hand her like 20 pounds of raw meat, and ask her to cook for a dozen strangers.
The final scene of a Muppet Christmas Carol where the whole neighborhood eats a big turkey together.
December 20, 2025 at 1:35 AM
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A screen grab from the movie the Big Short, in which one character asks "I don't get it. Why are they confessing?" And the others respond "they're not confessing. They're bragging."
December 18, 2025 at 7:27 PM
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This is really the crux of it. Affordable housing investment comes from a mix of private and public sources that take different forms. Which investments the government is willing to do vs not is basically arbitrary, and states are starting to fill gaps in the private market they traditionally didn't
The situation is exacerbated by the current economic environment, with higher interest rates and rising labor and materials costs for multifamily housing putting a damper on both market rate and affordable production. These cost increases result in financing gaps that traditional, private-sector lenders are unable to bridge with standard loan products, leaving developers to turn to outside equity investors with return expectations that make projects infeasible.7 Due to limited supply, more and more households are feeling the squeeze, with cost-burdens rising rapidly among middle income households.
December 11, 2025 at 3:57 PM
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The Bloomberg rezonings were never meant to be broad-based increases in the housing supply. The goal was always to downzone the Republican-leaning outer boroughs, with the industrial-to-residential upzonings offsetting the loss.
bsky.app/profile/bicy...
A map of NYC zoned residential capacity color coded by change during Bloomberg's first term. The largest reductions are in outlying neighborhoods while the largest increases are in Western Queens, three South Bronx, and Jamaica.
December 10, 2025 at 4:26 PM
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At midnight last night, Whoopi Goldberg became (to my knowledge) the first person to ever EGOTLMF:
She has won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, a Tony, and is now a Lego minifigure.
Three Lego mini figures depicting Data, Guinan, and Wesley from Star Trek: the Next Generation
November 28, 2025 at 2:41 PM
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Federalist No. 74 specifically deals with this issue- what if the president sympathizes with an insurrection. Hamilton argues that it may be necessary to pardon traitors in high stakes ceasefire negotiations. That's obviously irrelevant now, as Jan. 6 was >4 years ago.
guides.loc.gov/federalist-p...
It deserves particular attention, that treason will often be connected with seditions which embrace a large proportion of the community; as lately happened in Massachusetts. In every such case, we might expect to see the representation of the people tainted with the same spirit which had given birth to the offense. And when parties were pretty equally matched, the secret sympathy of the friends and favorers of the condemned person, availing itself of the good-nature and weakness of others, might frequently bestow impunity where the terror of an example was necessary. On the other hand, when the sedition had proceeded from causes which had inflamed the resentments of the major party, they might often be found obstinate and inexorable, when policy demanded a conduct of forbearance and clemency. But the principal argument for reposing the power of pardoning in this case to the Chief Magistrate is this: in seasons of insurrection or rebellion, there are often critical moments, when a welltimed offer of pardon to the insurgents or rebels may restore the tranquillity of the commonwealth; and which, if suffered to pass unimproved, it may never be possible afterwards to recall. The dilatory process of convening the legislature, or one of its branches, for the purpose of obtaining its sanction to the measure, would frequently be the occasion of letting slip the golden opportunity. The loss of a week, a day, an hour, may sometimes be fatal.
November 10, 2025 at 2:16 PM
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This isn't the same as "last time you moved" but close enough.

For the record: the belief that being born somewhere makes your opinion more valuable than someone else's is both dumb and un-American.
Exit poll asking how long you have lived in NYC, showing Mamdani overwhelmingly won recent transplants while Cuomo had a narrow majority of people born in NYC.
November 5, 2025 at 10:36 PM
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Yeah they are. Click "AD details," then select a borough. It'll take you to the assembly district table.
Table of Manhattan AD election returns.
November 5, 2025 at 2:35 AM
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Omni-Man saying "that's the neat thing, it's not"
November 2, 2025 at 5:45 PM
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Up up and away
Me dressed as Clark Kent
October 31, 2025 at 11:14 PM
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✅️✅️✅️✅️✅️✅️
Two "Manhattan votes early" stickers.
October 27, 2025 at 5:28 PM
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No kings. No slaves. No Nazis.
Two people in dinosaur costumes and a person in a bear costume at the No Kings protest in Manhattan. A group holding a banner for the Four Freedoms Democratic Club in front of the crowd. A large crowd of protestors in Times Square in Manhattan. A woman, a guy (me), and an older man at the protest holding signs.
October 18, 2025 at 6:20 PM
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Crowd of protestors in Times Square in Manhattan
October 18, 2025 at 6:06 PM
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A pastor praying, with the caption "Jesus, I see what you've done for other people, and I want that for me."
October 10, 2025 at 4:52 PM
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When I ran for City Council I could only respond to text messages during my lunch break because I was a state employee and if any of them were from supporters that could be considered doing politics with government resources...
US Department of Housing and Urban Development website with a giant red banner reading "The Radical Left are going to shut down the government and inflict massive pain on the American people unless they get their $1.5 trillion wish list of demands. The Trump administration wants to keep the government open for the American people."
September 30, 2025 at 1:40 PM
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Such cowards. They want to be live in a dictatorship so badly and the moment they get a little pushback they run and hide.
Deadline FCC Chairman Says His "Easy Way or the Hard Way" Comment About Jimmy Kimmel Wasn't Meant as a Threat to Pull Licenses if ABC Didn't Fire Him Twitter screen shot Kevin McHale: this was all in Project 2025, btw Brendan Carr: [meme of Jack Nicholson nodding *yes*]
September 23, 2025 at 12:44 AM
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Like, this is very much not a person who saw this as "kids stuff" or charity. It's a comprehensive vision for how to use new technology to advance national prosperity and egalitarian values, and Big Bird is a part of it.
www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/re...
Television is still a young invention. But we have learned already that it has immense--even revolutionary--power to change, to change our lives. I hope that those who lead the Corporation will direct that power toward the great and not the trivial purposes. At its best, public television would help make our Nation a replica of the old Greek marketplace, where public affairs took place in view of all the citizens. What hath man wrought? And how will man use his miracles? The answer just begins with public broadcasting. In 1862, the Morrill Act set aside lands in every State--lands which belonged to the people--and it set them aside in order to build the land-grant colleges of the Nation. So today we rededicate a part of the airwaves--which belong to all the people--and we dedicate them for the enlightenment of all the people. I believe the time has come to stake another claim in the name of all the people, stake a claim based upon the combined resources of communications. I believe the time has come to enlist the computer and the satellite, as well as television and radio, and to enlist them in the cause of education.
July 17, 2025 at 2:32 PM
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If (like most ppl) you haven't read the Declaration of Independence since high school, I'd recommend it. It's kind of stunning how many basic tenants of liberal democracy we take for granted that are now slipping away (TLDR: the whole thing is about due process, immigration, and tariffs).
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers. He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance. He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power. For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury: For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences: For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies: For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. Flag of the Pennsylvania "Hanover Associator" volunteer militia from 1775. It's a red background with a rifleman wearing green and the words "liberty or death" in a yellow ribbon at the bottom.
July 4, 2025 at 2:35 PM
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The website is hilarious, BTW. Not even a pretend attempt at transparency. The link to Follow the Money doesn't show anything since they haven't filed a disclosure. Just gonna flout the law and pay the fines next week, after it no longer matters.
@boreskes.bsky.social
eastsidecommittee.com/
A bare bones website called "committee for the east side in support of Democrat Virginia Maloney for New York City Council 4th District. Paid for by Committee for the East Side. Brice Peyre, treasurer. Not expressly or otherwise authorized or requested by any candidate or the candidate’s committee or agent. More information at nyc.gov/FollowTheMoney"
June 23, 2025 at 5:50 PM
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I appreciate @nytimes.com reporting on the obscene amounts of PAC spending in this race but maybe they could have mentioned this new one advertising on their site, run by fmr Congress Member Carolyn Maloney's COS that has not filed a single disclosure with the CFB... www.nytimes.com/2025/06/23/n...
Their race, like others, has been swamped by mailers and digital advertising from outside groups backed by companies such as DoorDash and the billionaires Bill Ackman and Steven Roth, who have also supported Mr. Trump and former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, the front-runner in the mayor’s race. Ms. Maloney has been by far the biggest beneficiary in her race of this outside support, with $450,000 backing her.
June 23, 2025 at 5:04 PM
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@nadler.house.gov had the foresight to oppose the Iraq War from the beginning. I am glad to see his condemnation of the dangerous military escalation by the Trump Administration.
A tweet from Congress Member Jerry Nadler on X saying: "The President’s decision to bomb Iran was grossly unconstitutional, since only Congress has the power to declare war. The President’s action will without a doubt lead to many American, Israeli and Iranian deaths and must be condemned in the strongest possible terms."
June 22, 2025 at 10:50 AM
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Major car crash on the East Side. Thankfully nobody appears to have been hurt.
NYPD at the site of a car crash that took down a bunch of scaffolding.
June 16, 2025 at 9:48 PM