Ben West 🦋

@benwest.bsky.social

3031 Followers 3089 Following

"Seasoned" campaigner & aspiring computer whisperer. Anxious dog person. Rewiring broken systems. https://BenWest.blog Climate solutions, democratization, infosec and anti-surveillance advocate. He/They 🍉 📍Huron-Wendat and Anishinaabek Territory

Some annoying celebrities singing the FIFA anthem... Captions on the screen show them singing about Jesus, Lord.
A totally normal picture of the most normal dog in the world. Her name is River and cuteness flows out of her. She is a pot hound from Barbados who hates mosquito and prefers to be outside in the winter. She wants belly rubs to get over the trauma that is the outside world. Her signature underbite is the more adorable thing on planet earth. Thank you for your attention to these details.
A screenshot of PattieGonias account on bluesky showing its been suspended.
A tweet from Nate Silver that includes a data visualization of the most engagement on Twitter accounts with Right wing accounts in red. The chart is mostly red with all the biggest circles in the middle being red. The biggest being Elon Musk followed by Eric Dougherty, Libs of Tim Tok, Wall Street Apes, Maga voices, Caturd and similar accounts.
The 17M ice break: shattering 30 inch Ice to save lives. Features and image of a hovercraft looking cool. From Pure Engine (whoever that is... A clone of pure engineering?).
Screenshot of news story with Marc Carney and Melanie Joie smiling a lot while talking about military spending. Carney is at a podium that says building Canada Strong. "This is an entire culture change, and this is the first time Canada has a defence industrial strategy, so good news," she also said, pointing to defence procurement deals the Liberals have signed since last April's federal election. "I'm as impatient as you, but I really think that things are moving ahead." According to a technical briefing by government officials to journalists ahead of the announcement, the number of defence acquisitions awarded to Canadian firms was 43 per cent last year.
The Aurora Borealis but if says fuck off trump in the sky.
A close up photo of an orca doll that was given to me as a holiday gift. Its bendy and has a funny face with bulgy eyeballs and teeth that look like an underbite. It looks menacinf from this angle and the folds in the plastic exterior are reflecting light in a way that resembles a scar or weathering of some kind. The orca looks determined and undettered. From the side or above it would be more clear that this is an ornately designed piece of interlocking plastic art sitting on a stool with a black and white ancient Greek pattern... Or something like that. Its propped up as if emerging on a granite coaster.
A photo of a scene from the pilot episode of the show The New Look. CoCo Chanel sits with Nazis in a restaurant discussing her business situation (she lost control of her business and her partner's were Jewish). The Nazi officer says to her "Are you aware of the Aryan Laws".
A lovely Autumn coloured dog upside and stretching on the couch. She is a Black Mouthed Cur.
A screenshot of a list of surveillance tech and applications and services used to extract data from private devices. Vendors include Cellebrite, Magnet Forensics, MSAB, SCG CAnada, Digital Intelligence, Asenal Recon and others.
A screenshot from a news site. Thailand's shuts down iris scanning operation. Pirctured is the world coin orb with a person pointing to where to put your face for an iris scan.
A scene from the film Killing Heydrich. The dark and brooding yet emotionless facr of a Nazi officer.
Arguably one of the cutest dogs on earth looks back st tbe camera over her shoulder. Her Carmel colouring blends into the leaves on the ground.
A screenshot of Rosie Barton and guests on a budget 2025 broadcast. Closed captions cover Rosies face (sorry Rosie) saying the words if the budget goes over like broccoli at a... Which was a small typo he said brocolli cake.
two dogs spoon on a couch. The older one has an ear sticking up and her underbite sticking out and a funny look in her eyes. Her now much bigger younger sister, has her paw around her older sisters waist and seems very happy to be cuddling.
A peak inside the back of a new corne split keyboard with a purple circuit board.
Sunrise over Georgian Bay a dark haired dog investigates the sand on a rocky beach.
An illustration that says frogs against fascism. A person in a frog costume (reminiscent of the photo that looked like this scene from Portland recently) standing in front of a group of militarized and masked officers. A word bubble says Fuck ICE.
A cute pig standing next to a trough with words saying wash your hands you filthy animal
A six panel comic illustration grid. In the first panel a figure lies in bed, sick and old. I'm dying my life flashes before my eyes it says. The frame now is eye shaped for the next 4 panels. The character gets older in each panel and their computer monitor that they're sitting in front of gets more modern. It's a story of how their entire life was spent in front of a computer. In the last frame, we'll return to the figure in their hospital bed and it just says nice little little tear in their right eye. And the person looking over them who seemed concerned before now looks happy.
How to watch the collapse of civilization. A person is shown sitting slouched with a red x and then up with a green check mark.
This vase has had more than enough of your shenanigans. A vase with handles that looks like a parent with hands on their hips.
Yes that is a like for a tweet from Trixie Mattel and Natalie Wynn (aka Contrapoints).
The wizard from the Wizard of Oz is revealed behind the curtain and we learn that his magic is actually all psyops tech. He has long white hair and a jacket over a shirt of some kind and a vest. As well as pants that are giving musty old pants at the second hand store vibes. He generally seems to be feeling kinda frumpy.
A short video highlighting the electoral reform opportunity in BC and the cut off date of Thursday May 29th the sign up to speak.
A sign that says Dogs Off Leash May Be Shot.
How do I describe this in alt text. It's depraved thought experiment made with stick figures. One little dude is trapped with his head stickout out of the ground and another guy is about to play Russian roulette with his life pushing a boulder, with a hole big enough for his head, down a hill above him. And then a teeter totter with spikes on the bottom is above another stick person lying down? What is this scenario? Training camp for future evil henchmen? There is a rock on the other side of that teeter totter and its technically bigger and heavier than the rock rolling down the hill given it doesn't have that big hole in it. But people will debate in the comments if the speed of the rock will be enough force to actually move the teeter totter and cross that one dude under the spikes. Or maybe the friction of taking that guys head off might slow it down? There are two more characters one a bit further away who looks to me like they are keeping watch while this all goes down. At the bottom it says who dies if "E" pushes the stone. The character all have letter starting with A on the far left who is likely the lookout and least likely to die immediately from the stone rolling unless it actually takes flight after treating the head of that dude (D) as a speed bump.
Peter Gabriel makes a blank facial expression while the head of a doll spins larger than life above him in a surreal music video.
A road in Central Ontario where all the trees are covered in frozen rain and a tree has fallen in the middle of the road blocking it for cars.
Some guy in sunglasses juggling rocks on the beach on the banks of Georgian Bay (Spirit Lake). It's followed by that AI image of trump with the Canadian flag superimposed over a oil sands mine. It looks dystopian cause it is. It says on the Screen Canada is not for Sale followed by an Avi Lewis campaign poster that says I'm up for the fight with a pic of trump in the background and avi in the foreground. Finally a shameless attempt to get you to volunteer remotely to help elect this important candidate in the upcoming federal election.
A banksy piece from coney island. It is a stencil that depicts a group of people of various ages including a group of children an old person and a dog all being whipped by a man in a suite with a hard hat. His whip is made out of a stock market price arrow which is in red. Everything else is in black. They are carrying some of their possessions and might be a refuges or immigrants.
Arguably the two cutest dogs on earth in the midst of wrestling and then awkwardly stopped for a moment while one charming short black and white furred pooch with an underbite is being squished into the couch by her 1 year old puppy of a sister. She is pausing before she resumes trying to chomp on the back of her sister's neck. The younger pup has lovely autumn coloured fur. Her head is wrapped around the edge and back of her sister's older but smaller neck.
a screenshot from Facebook from the account Feminist News. It is white text on a black background that says: All billionaires must submit a list of five things they did for society in the last week or their wealth will be confiscated.
A hand drawn protest sign with the adorable Shiba Inu that Dodgecoin was based on, Kabosu (rip) that says much illegal, such treasury, very coup, very data breach, unelected, wow.
a screenshot from the official WhiteHouse twitter account featuring a video of immigrants being deported from the united states in handcuffs with the caption reading "ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight" The video features the sounds of chains being laid out on the ground and handcuffs being placed on human beings about to be deported.
Arguably one of the cutest dogs on earth is smiling while she runs through the snow.
A meme of the trolly problem solved presented by railway workers at the IWW iu The classic illustration of a trolly at a fork in the tracks with several people tied to the lower track and. one tied to the higher track. The engineer is giving the thumbs up. Slip the Switch by flipping it while the front wheels have passed through but before the back wheels do. This will cause a controlled derailment bringing the Trolly to a halt.
A meme showing a groundhog seemingly screaming in horror in front of an apocalyptic scene with a breaking news caption that says Puksutawny Phil hospitalized after receiving horrifying vision of the future.
A sign being held above someone's head at a rally with a hand drawn picture of Kabosu, the adorable Shiba Inu that was used in memes and then became the inspiration behind Dogecoin, the cryptocurrency. This is related to Elon because he has been accused of pumping the value of DOGE with his tweets and then "dumping" his tokens for a profit at others expense. So isn't it cute that he named the Orwellian government agency he now runs the Department Of Government Efficiency (or DOGE) 🙃. What a great name for an agency which is actively and illegally dismantling vitally important infrastructure and taking control of the private data of millions of people. Anyways, the sign has a picture of this charming Shiba Inu, Kabosu, who somehow is now tied in peoples minds to these plutocrats. Around their cute face are words written in various colours that parody various internet memes. They say: Fake Agency, much illegal, unelected, very data breach, such treason, very coup, wow.
Arguably two of the cutest dogs on earth in the snow at the "beach" on Georgian Bay.
A screenshot from a post celebrating Angela Davis's birthday. It features a black and white picture of Davis in her youth and these words. "You have to act as if it was possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time. - Angela Davis."
Kent Brokman from the Simpsons welcomes the insect overlords during his news broadcast.
A screenshot from Mastodon featuring Chad and Tim W. discussing a picture of Trump doing his oath of office. For some reason Melania is wearing a hat that covers her eyes inside. Chad says, Trump didn't put his hand on the bible he brough while reciting his oath. Tim responds, He didn't want to catch on fire.
A group photo of students and teachers from Windermere Secondary School participating in the great climate race. Everyone is wearing race bibs and posing as a group on the beach at Stanley Park where the event was held.
a screenshot of Justin Trudeau during his resignation speech in front of his residence in Ottawa. Text on the screen says, Breaking News: Trudeau resigns as Liberal Leader. PM Trudeau says he notified his kids last night of his resignation after much reflection.
This is Autumn, the bundle of never ending energy that we adopted earlier this year. This pic of her playing fetch on a grassy field was taken not long after she was adopted. She is golden coloured like her name suggests.
My best friend Rosie, a photo taken on our last walk together. She was a brindle ball of love and loyalty.
Street art, chalk writing on a sidewalk with beautiful hand lettering. It says stop imagining the apocalypse and start imagining the revolution.
A meme illustration that shows a politician standing on the end of a plank over the side of a cliff. A crowd stands on the other side of the plank watching him and one person is walking away stepping off the plank. We realize if they all walked away the politicians would fall off the side of this cliff. Text at the top reads: The people don't know their true power.
Meme: A good thing about winter. An illustration of two people waving at each other in a snowy landscape. The closer person in the foreground is wearing mittens and a toque (or a "beanie" if you are American). An inlay graphic shows an x ray view of the mitten shows that the person waving is actually only raising their middle finger but this is hidden inside the mitten.
A screenshot from Twitter Proton Support (3m ago) Hi! Due to a network incident, Proton is experiencing service instability. We have all hands on deck currently working on improving stability, and we will update again as soon as we have more information. We're grateful for your patience.
The resignation letter from Chrystia Freeland. It has been the honour of my life to serve in government, working for Canada and Canadians. We have accomplished a lot together. On Friday, you told me you no longer want me to serve as your Finance Minister and offered me another position in the Cabinet. Upon reflection, I have concluded that the only honest and viable path is for me to resign from the Cabinet. To be effective, a Minister must speak on behalf of the Prime Minister and with his full confidence. In making your decision, you made clear that I no longer credibly enjoy that confidence and possess the authority that comes with it. For the past number of weeks, you and I have found ourselves at odds about the best path forward for Canada. Our country today faces a grave challenge. The incoming administration in the United States is pursuing a policy of aggressive economic nationalism, including a threat of 25 per cent tariffs. We need to take that threat extremely seriously. That means keeping our fiscal powder dry today, so we have the reserves we may need for a coming tariff war. That means eschewing costly political gimmicks, which we can ill afford and which make Canadians doubt that we recognize the gravity of the moment. That means pushing back against 'America First' economic nationalism with a determined effort to fight for capital and investment and the jobs they bring. That means working in good faith and humility with the Premiers of the provinces and territories of our great and diverse country, and building a true Team Canada response. I know Canadians would recognize and respect such an approach. They know when we are working for them, and they equally know when we are focused on ourselves. Inevitably, our time in government will come to an end. But how we deal with the threat our country currently faces will define us for a generation, and perhaps longer. Canada will win if we are strong, smart, and united. It is this conviction whic…
Comedian Lee Camp doing a comedy show over zoom on a TV screen on a stand. Sometimes he is funny even without hearing an audience reaction.
A shared image from tbe audiobook platform Libro. fm The cover of Disaster Nationalism the downfall of liberal civilization by Richard Seymour. The bottom of the image shows the logo of Another Story Bookshop and it highlights that a portion of the funds from this purchase support this independent bookstore.
Luigi Manglone tweeting about the decline of christianity and posting a common meme graphic of a pale character smoking a cigarette wearing a black toque.