Ben Thomas
@benjaminthomas.bsky.social
former US Army infantry NCO, USSS Special Agent; current infosec and investigations I’ve investigated fraud for 15 years. We’ve elected experienced fraud actors to run the country.
created October 13, 2023
223 followers 443 following 1,207 posts
view profile on Bluesky Posts
Jonathan Howard (@joho.bsky.social) reposted
This video remains undeleted. Watch 2 very powerful officials today discuss their plan for herd immunity via mass infection 5 years ago. (Or skip to minute 11 to hear it). It’s important to remember. youtu.be/rz_Z7Gf1aRE
Kara Swisher (@karaswisher.bsky.social) reposted
The combo of legit speculation on the health of Trump and this weird kumbaya makes for quite a dangerous situation for the USA: www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/w...
Stardust 🌏🎬 (@stardustbluepr.com) reposted
RIP sir... a huge talent. "Graham Greene, a Canadian actor best known for his Oscar-nominated turn in the 1990 film “Dances with Wolves,” died on Monday in Toronto after a battle with long illness. He was 73."
Diana Butler Bass (@dianabutlerbass.bsky.social) reposted
I made the mistake of watching season 2 of "Shiny Happy People" today. And now I can't stop thinking about the years of transition from 70s Jesus-people evangelicalism into the 80s of authoritarian evangelicalism. How very easy and subtle it was. And how it changed America.
Zack Davisson (@zackdavisson.com) reposted
My biggest shock of our trip to Vegas recently was learning that those casinos are some of the greenest buildings on earth. They are roughly 99% solar powered and reclaim roughly 98% of all water. Why? Nothing to do with environmental issues at all. Simply because it is more profitable.
Ben Thomas (@benjaminthomas.bsky.social)
The AR-15’s popularity didn’t result from marketing. Military and law enforcement have trained for decades on the same platform. It is not automatic like the military’s but is the same size and shape. The controls are in the same place. People buy what they know and others who respect them copy them
Ben Thomas (@benjaminthomas.bsky.social)
This admin is corruption all the way down
Ben Thomas (@benjaminthomas.bsky.social)
This is the way
Atul Gawande (@agawande.bsky.social) reposted
9 CDC Directors going back to 1977 speak out. What RFK Jr has done to our nation’s public health system "should alarm every American." It "is unlike anything we have ever seen at the agency, and unlike anything our country has ever experienced." www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/o...
John Sipher (@johnsipher.bsky.social) reposted
“I’ve never met anyone else remotely like him…He is and was profoundly stupid, completely lacking in intellectual curiosity.” www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-...
Ben Thomas (@benjaminthomas.bsky.social)
Would not be surprised if one facet of the intent here is to drive the US admin further into insanity and toward desperate attempts for attention including abandoning sanctions and restrictions on Russia and China
Julie Roginsky (@julieroginsky.bsky.social) reposted
Active Measures: How the Kremlin Penetrated Fox News and Right-Wing Media open.substack.com/pub/saltypol...
Ben Thomas (@benjaminthomas.bsky.social)
The current admin is an insider threat and will continue to harm American government, the American people, and the vulnerable globally until removed
Mark Copelovitch (@mcopelov.bsky.social) reposted
Whether or not these people are actual foreign agents is almost irrelevant. Their actions are observationally equivalent to & indistinguishable from the actions actual foreign agents would be taking. The consequences of our total Article I constitutional crisis, right here:
Suri Crowe 🥷7️⃣ (@suricrowe.bsky.social) reposted
“in six months sec. kennedy has undermined 60 years of vaccine preventable diseases in this country.” dr. tom frieden frmr dir of CDC let that sink in-the damage this regime has inflicted on us.
Arianeh Sajadi, Esq. (@arianehsajadi.bsky.social) reposted
When the day comes that the Dictator in the WH is no longer on this earth, I will forever remember those who supported him, and/or failed to loudly oppose him. Accountability is a prerequisite to our societal healing and evolution.
Just Jack (@just-jack-1.bsky.social) reposted
He starts randomly jabbering on about getting into heaven. Mysterious bruising on his hand. He disappears from the public eye for days. Even a child would suspect something was up. Everyone but Congress and mainstream media.
Ben Thomas (@benjaminthomas.bsky.social)
when you get done, engage him in friendly conversation about his job, sprinkle with compliments, keep him occupied beyond the point he’s trying to move on, don’t take any hints, be relentlessly curious
Mark Copelovitch (@mcopelov.bsky.social) reposted
Folks look at you like you're crazy when you say we're in the midst of the worst Article I constitutional crisis in American history, & well, here we are, hundreds of miles on the interstate past the Goldwater-Rhodes exit that we already should have taken. bsky.app/profile/mcop...
Auschwitz Memorial (@auschwitzmemorial.bsky.social) reposted
31 August 1942 | A transport of 1,000 Jews deported from #Drancy in German-occupied France arrived at #Auschwitz. After the arrival selection, 676 of them were murdered in gas chambers. One of them was 3 y/o Jacques Zajderman.
KrisPLettuce (@krisplettuce.bsky.social) reposted
The J6 pardons and the Babbitt payout are very dire. A clear and obvious promise to the base that there will be no consequences for overthrowing the government and financial rewards for dying in the effort.
Ben Thomas (@benjaminthomas.bsky.social) reply parent
I've been muting/blocking and show-me-less-like-this-ing for a long time with little evidence it was working, but recently it seems to actually be limiting the stuff I've been telling it to exclude. It's a much better experience than it was a couple of months ago.
Anna Bower (@annabower.bsky.social) reposted
DEVELOPING: Advocates are seeking a court order to block the Trump administration’s effort to deport hundreds of unaccompanied minor children to Guatemala. Judge abruptly moved 3 pm hearing up to 12:30 after she was notified that some children “are in the process of being removed" today.
Tom Joscelyn (@tomjoscelyn.bsky.social) reposted
This is an unconstitutional and authoritarian power grab. The constitution grants power over federal elections to the states and Congress - not the president.
Lukasz Olejnik (@lukaszolejnik.bsky.social) reposted
📣AI propaganda factories🏭 are now operational. My study shows how small, open-weight models can run as fully automatic generators in influence campaigns. mechanising personas, engagement, cadence. Possible for State, non-state, and micro-actors, including and bedroom ones.
The New York Times (@nytimes.com) reposted
A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting 10 Guatemalan children back to their home country, and scheduled an emergency hearing on Sunday afternoon to determine whether the deportations were legal.
Ben Thomas (@benjaminthomas.bsky.social)
Donald Trump is a convicted felon with no law enforcement or military experience and a clear history of abusing the military and law enforcement. This admin is populated with flagrant unapologetic liars.
The New Republic (@newrepublic.com) reposted
"Trump is showing, with this insane rant, that he fully intends to maximally abuse presidential powers in every way possible to try to rig and swing the midterms. It’s not an accident that this is all happening while he’s militarizing cities." trib.al/8vnBGIq
Andrea Love, PhD | Biomedical Scientist (@drandrealove.bsky.social) reposted
RFK Jr cut half a billion dollars in research funding for mRNA vaccines. He & Marty Makary claim mRNA vaccines are “risky” so they’ll shift to “traditional, older” vaccine tech that’s “safer.” Guess what? We used to immunize people by blowing powdered smallpox scabs up their noses. 1/
Al Cappuccino…☕️🇮🇹 (@alcappuccinoit.bsky.social) reposted
We went from modern science to medicine wagon in 7 months.
Elizabeth Sofia 💙🐈🐶🇺🇸🇨🇦🇺🇦🏳️🌈 (@skippjon1.bsky.social) reposted
Ben Thomas (@benjaminthomas.bsky.social)
The worst people are implementing the most change the fastest because they lack the humility to respect the good work of people who came before them.
Paula Poundstone (@paulapoundstone.bsky.social) reposted
The very rich Peter Thiel is behind a lot of the destruction of pur democracy going on right now, and he thinks the rest of us little people are just in his way.
Catherynne M. Valente (@catvalente.bsky.social) reposted
Those who haven’t been through the cycle of abuse rarely realize a massive part of why people stay is the horribly human conviction that if we could just find the right words, they’d understand what they’re doing is wrong & that it’s killing us. There are no right words, because they already know.
Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) reposted
Su: The BLS collects statistical information — things like the nation’s inflation rate, the unemployment rate, the number of jobs created, which industries are growing, and which are contracting. And on every one of those fronts, Trump is failing.
Mia Farrow (@miafarrow.bsky.social) reposted
Trump has fired fired the top US Military officers. All of them. How come?
Sherrilyn Ifill (@sifill.bsky.social) reposted
Right. Same thing as 2020 [see below].Through 2 debates and a session on Economics in Chicago during the 2024 campaign I never heard a reporter bring up the cost of the 2020 tariffs & the bailout to farmers WE paid for to cover Trump’s tariff folly. I’m sick of it. www.forbes.com/sites/stuart...
CivicTracker (@civictracker.us) reposted
Trump declares intention to issue an Executive Order mandating Voter ID for all votes, restricts mail-in voting to exceptions, and insists on paper ballots only.
ProPublica (@propublica.org) reposted
One disabled Marine veteran has not had a primary care doctor assigned to him since his previous doctor left in the winter, his wife said. The VA “was never like this before. There’s a lack of staff, empty rooms, locked doors.”
CNN (@cnn.com) reposted
The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday fired at least eight employees who signed a letter criticizing the agency’s leadership under Administrator Lee Zeldin and President Donald Trump.
Quinta Jurecic (@qjurecic.bsky.social) reposted
I wrote this weeks after trump won in 2016 and almost ten years later I still think there is basically nothing more to say, not because I am super smart but because this is all so very empty and stupid www.lawfaremedia.org/article/bull...
Pam Keith (@pamkeithdc.bsky.social) reposted
Thousands of farm animals & livestock are going unattended. They aren’t being milked. They aren’t being fed. I feel a great deal more for those animals than for the farmers who voted for this shit. They KNEW who their workers were & where they came from. But they voted to hurt them anyway.
Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt.bsky.social) reposted
RIP Mark Knoller, the longtime @cbsnews.com.web.brid.gy White House reporter who made himself into a one-man archive of all presidential facts and statistics. He was a prince of the briefing room, ever generous to colleagues and competitors alike. He was the best. www.cbsnews.com/news/mark-kn...
Ben Thomas (@benjaminthomas.bsky.social)
Are we going to be autocracy and oligarchy or democracy and republic? The other issues don't matter until we are firmly the latter again.
Dan Nexon (@dhnexon.bsky.social) reposted
🧵 Authoritarianism, Democratization, and Coalition Politics. The consensus around here is, more or less, that the United States is currently a consolidating authoritarian regime controlled by a mix of reactionary populists and fascists.
Garrett M. Graff (@vermontgmg.bsky.social) reposted
The extent to which ICE is ignoring all civil rights and due process is astounding — and indicative of a culture where they’ve been told they can do literally no wrong. Agency and admin leaders must face sanctions and legal consequences.
Senator Ron Wyden (@wyden.senate.gov) reposted
NEW: my office has received disturbing whistleblower reports that the Trump administration plans to separate 700 children from their families, lawyers, and support systems. Disappearing vulnerable children beyond the reach of American law and oversight is beyond depravity.
Ben Thomas (@benjaminthomas.bsky.social) reply parent
Important bc if there’s one thing that will get you through the eye of that needle, it’s more money
Ben Thomas (@benjaminthomas.bsky.social)
Mulch is a force multiplier Trash is lethality
Julie Roginsky (@julieroginsky.bsky.social) reposted
“When you buy apples, when you buy bacon, when you buy eggs, they would 2X and 3X the price over a short period of time.. We're going to bring those prices way down." - Trump, 12/24 Apples (Honeycrisp, pp): $2.94 ($1.88 8/24) Bacon (sliced, pp): $7.11 ($6.88 7/24) Eggs (per 12): $3.60 (3.08 7/24)
Ben Thomas (@benjaminthomas.bsky.social)
If we want change, the first step is register to vote
Liz Neeley (@lizneeley.bsky.social) reposted
ICYMI, Social Security’s chief data officer reported that DOGE staff took actions that “constitute violations of laws, rules, and regulations, abuse of authority, gross mismanagement, and creation of a substantial and specific threat to public health & safety.” He was fired. Now this.
Ben Thomas (@benjaminthomas.bsky.social) reply parent
Good luck to you
Ben Thomas (@benjaminthomas.bsky.social) reply parent
Deuteronomy 22:5 Exodus 21:22-25 are examples. It uses its own language, not ours, but the concepts are there.
Ben Thomas (@benjaminthomas.bsky.social) reply parent
404
Bill Comeau 🇨🇦 (@bill-comeau.bsky.social) reposted
I would have a hard time arguing against the possibility that many of the US administration's actions look a lot like eugenics.
Ben Thomas (@benjaminthomas.bsky.social) reply parent
both are in the Bible
Gravel Influencer (@gravelinfluencer.bsky.social) reposted
The average American simply has no idea how quickly the infrastructure that keeps us safe and healthy is collapsing. These systems run in the background thanks to government employees who quietly do critical work. Those employees are being purged and systems are being destroyed.
Richard Waite (@waiterich.bsky.social) reposted
Seems bad
Ben Thomas (@benjaminthomas.bsky.social)
This is the way
Street Art Utopia (@streetartutopia.com) reposted
"A mural of the Statue of Liberty in shame" by JDL Street Ar in Lille , Roubaix France 🇫🇷
Angry (@angrystaffer.bsky.social) reposted
I hope people realize how absolutely fucked this situation is. This isn’t normal. People are resigning all over the place because the government is mishandling our data, ruining our public health services, and generally making Americans less safe.
Ben Thomas (@benjaminthomas.bsky.social)
This admin is fraud all the way down
Ari Cohn (@aricohn.com) reposted
1/ This week, House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer demanded that the Wikimedia Foundation hand over information on editorial policies & individual contributors to help the committee investigate "propaganda" on Wikipedia. These demands are offensive to 1st Amendment values
Marisa Kabas (@marisakabas.bsky.social) reposted
NEW — I wrote about the resignation of SSA's chief data officer just says after he blew the whistle on a major data vulnerability, including the full text of his blistering email and how his allegations confirm those made by a previous whistleblower and a former employee back in March:
Ben Thomas (@benjaminthomas.bsky.social)
The subtext is USSS played a significant role in the logistics for the book tour – flights, hotels, venues. Her staff is involved too, but a former’s staff is small. This is intentional sabotage by making a massive last minute change requiring entirely new security and logistics planning and budget.
nicknehamas.bsky.social (@nicknehamas.bsky.social) reposted
NEW: Social Security’s chief data officer, Charles Borges, has resigned, three days after submitting a whistle-blower complaint that alleged members of DOGE had uploaded the confidential personal information of hundreds of millions of Americans to an insecure cloud server.
Justin Wolfers (@justinwolfers.bsky.social) reposted
BOOM. The federal appeals court rules Trump's tariffs illegal, because they are. There's no national emergency, and so the power to tariff a country rests with Congress. Trump admin has lost at every stage of the process, but stay tuned for the Supremes to chime in.
Marisa Kabas (@marisakabas.bsky.social) reposted
BREAKING: Social Security Administration chief data officer and whistle-blower Charles Borges has resigned after bombshell report that SSA put highly-sensitive data at risk. He sent out an email to colleagues moments ago. Here is the text of his email shared with me:
Sean Sublette (@subletteweather.com) reposted
47 and his goons are giving away our future to China.
CNN (@cnn.com) reposted
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has signed a Republican-friendly redistricting bill approved by the state legislature, finalizing a new congressional map pushed by President Donald Trump ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. https://cnn.it/3JEEe4m
Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (@jayapal.house.gov) reposted
ICE’s newest mega-detention center is at a WWII army base — the same site where thousands of Japanese-Americans were wrongfully detained. Cruelty for the sake of cruelty. www.usatoday.com/story/news/2...
🪖MilitaryNewsUA🇺🇦 (@militarynewsua.bsky.social) reposted
❗️USAID is officially closing down, says US Secretary of State Rubio. The agency was responsible for providing economic, humanitarian, and technical assistance to countries around the world for more than 50 years.
Jay Garmon (@jaygarmon.bsky.social) reposted
Sand batteries are literally just silos of sand that retain heat exceptionally well -- so well that they can be tied to heat exchange systems to serve as proxy *electrical* batteries. Finland's new model can store enough power (100 MWh) to heat an entire town for a week. newatlas.com/energy/large...
Just Jack (@just-jack-1.bsky.social) reposted
Mark this day as the death of expertise at the CDC. All we have between us and the next pandemic are a bunch of horse paste eating conspiracy loons.
Brad Heath (@bradheath.bsky.social) reposted
Military officials raised alarms that using troops during a July immigration raid on Los Angeles' MacArthur park posed an "extremely high" risk, including the possibility of "miscommunication and fratricide." The Secretary of Defense ordered that it go ahead. www.reuters.com/world/us/mil...
Ben Thomas (@benjaminthomas.bsky.social)
This is the right frame – it includes his motive
Jason Koebler (@jasonkoebler.bsky.social) reposted
Trump take LEGO www.404media.co/lego-stops-s...
Josh McLaurin (@joshforgeorgia.bsky.social) reposted
I took this picture myself at the CDC protest today. These are among the hundreds of bullet holes in CDC headquarters windows, visible from the street. I heard today that the admin has no urgent plan to fix these windows. Imagine being a CDC employee going to work under these conditions
Bradley P. Moss (@bradmossesq.bsky.social) reposted
They are disappearing undesirables. They are deploying the military into cities. And now they are trying to commandeer railway stations. I can’t put my finger on it but this sounds familiar.
Ben Thomas (@benjaminthomas.bsky.social)
If you're a national security Republican, no you're not. This admin and its sycophants are endangering the lives of Americans and the vulnerable around the world across every aspect of government. We will be extremely lucky if we avoid a massive catastrophe in the next three years.
Brandon Friedman (@brandonfriedman.bsky.social) reposted
Robert E. Lee killed more U.S. troops in battle than Adolph Hitler and Osama bin Laden combined
Ben Thomas (@benjaminthomas.bsky.social) reply parent
Fraud over effectiveness
Ian Wiggett (@wiggett-ie.bsky.social) reposted
A ChatGPT model gave researchers detailed instructions on how to bomb a sports venue – including weak points at specific arenas, explosives recipes and advice on covering tracks – according to safety testing carried out this summer.
Ben Thomas (@benjaminthomas.bsky.social)
why
Ben Thomas (@benjaminthomas.bsky.social)
49% of voters decided we all needed to learn the hard way what it’s like to deal with malignant narcissists.
Mehul Desai (@technoiruk.bsky.social) reposted
August 29th, Happy #SkyNetDay #SkyNet #Terminator
Ben Thomas (@benjaminthomas.bsky.social)
This is the way
Sig. Ug. (@sigug.bsky.social) reposted
Holy cow. From the head of a founding member of NATO.
Steve Saideman (@smsaideman.bsky.social) reposted reply parent
My list says otherwise, Zack saideman.blogspot.com/2025/08/was-... as Trump may not have turned the US into a totalitarian regime, but the rule of law is gone, and Trump is doing stuff that is not allowed by the Constitution and facing little resistance on that stuff. He is acting as a dictator now
Ben Thomas (@benjaminthomas.bsky.social) reply parent
they are life destroying nihilists
ᴋʟᴀᵾs (@tinyklaus.com) reposted
Ashli Babbitt died because she was recruited into a death cult. That death cult is now in charge of the Air Force. The end.
Ben Thomas (@benjaminthomas.bsky.social)
JD Vance could not fill temporary bleachers in a grocery store parking lot when he campaigned by himself Impeach and remove them both
Keys for Liberty (@demskeys.bsky.social) reposted
🚨🚨🚨 Alligator Alcatraz 🚨🚨🚨 Univision is reporting calls from Alligator Alcatraz that guards have used teargas against the detainees. Several Florida detainees and their families contacted Noticias 23 to report an alleged riot. "They're mistreating us, they're beating us, help us." #DCFL
Ben Thomas (@benjaminthomas.bsky.social)
Anything to shift the focus away from the president’s moral depravity and physical and mental deterioration
Ben Thomas (@benjaminthomas.bsky.social) reply parent
the conspiracy of vaccine developers to defraud by eliminating disease and obstetricians to scam the public by dropping the infant and maternal mortality rate to near zero
Laurence H. Tribe (@tribelaw.bsky.social) reposted
Dr. William Foege, 89, who helped end smallpox in the 1970s, recently wrote: RFK Jr.’s “words can be as lethal as the smallpox virus.” And his actions are more lethal still. He’s waging war on America. That’s an impeachable offense. He must be removed from office. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/h...
Ben Thomas (@benjaminthomas.bsky.social) reply parent
because of course the autocrat would
Bolts (@boltsmag.org) reposted
“Making incarcerated people pay for communication has a regressive effect on their well-being, on their improvement in prison, and after they are released,” says Wanda Betram, a spokesperson for the Prison Policy Initiative.
Ben Thomas (@benjaminthomas.bsky.social)
wow