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Canary in the Coal Mine

@vaelis.bsky.social

910 followers 190 following 3.4K posts

GenXer who grew up on PBS in a small town & ended up in Fortune 5s. I have very strong feelings about our failed government, media, tech, fascism .. and video games. Not here for clout, just old and treat this like it’s a BBS 🙂

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Canary in the Coal Mine @vaelis.bsky.social · Feb 26

This is an excellent compilation of resources for folks looking to take action. Thank you Laura for putting it together.

Laura @tutusntinyhats.bsky.social · Feb 23

One of my favorite things about Bluesky (or at least my little corner of it) is that people are always sharing resources for taking action.

So here's a pinned thread collecting those resources, some made by me and some made by others.

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Schooley @schooley.bsky.social · 4h

Kind of wonder what the media reaction would have been if Biden accidentally publicly ordered Garland to prosecute his enemies.

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Jacob Soboroff @jacobsoboroff.bsky.social · 7h

Michigan Avenue right now.

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Your Internet Friend Tom Tomorrow @tomtomorrow.bsky.social · 6h

a thing to keep in mind, moving forward, is that if you're ditching this shithole, don't tell us about it on social media until you're safely on the other side

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Quinta Jurecic @qjurecic.bsky.social · 7h

incredibly, bleakly funny that trump is going after christopher wray, who spent his entire tenure at the fbi with his head down desperately trying to avoid trump's attention and did nothing to protect the bureau from trump's attacks www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Other prosecutors are investigating former CIA director John Brennan, another prominent Trump critic, and former FBI director Christopher Wray, who was originally appointed by Trump but enraged conservatives who came to believe he had wielded the bureau’s powers against them. Former officials have received subpoenas in recent days in the Wray inquiry, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter.

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David Kaib @davidkaib.bsky.social · 7h

Watching the way the Trump administration is using criminalization as a weapon ought to make clear how criminalization works even in normal times.

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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 9h

repost this if an editor has ever saved you from yourself

violent alien @blipstress.bsky.social · 9h

An actual hot take: Too many authors are afraid of editors watering down their voice or whatever and not afraid enough of editors letting you put any old slop on the page.

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onion person @junlper.beer · 9h

if every democrat doesn’t use the “we took freedom of speech away” on every messaging apparatus they have every single day for the next 4 years assume they want to lose

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 12h

Trump: "We took the freedom of speech away because that's been through the courts and the courts said you have freedom of speech, but what has happened is when they burn a flag it agitates and irritates crowds."

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Canary in the Coal Mine @vaelis.bsky.social · 9h

Thank you for the link!

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Schooley @schooley.bsky.social · 9h

How much is policy driven now by rabidly right wing “press” asking leading questions?

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 10h

Q: Have you given any more thought to possibly suspending habeas corpus?

TRUMP: Suspending who?

Q: Habeas corpus

TRUMP: I don't know. I'd rather leave that to Kristi.

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Tyler King @tyleraking.com · 11h

The literal reading of this statement is Pam Bondi is planning extrajudicial executions of random protesters.

Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 11h

My gosh. After the US bombed multiple boats in the middle of the ocean, murdering people on grounds that they were allegedly "carrying drugs," the US Attorney General says "Just like we did with cartels, we're going to take the same approach, President Trump, with Antifa."

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Canary in the Coal Mine @vaelis.bsky.social · 9h

(Also meant complimentary because I would buy that game so fast, she’s a fascinating historical character and overall badass)

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Canary in the Coal Mine @vaelis.bsky.social · 10h

As I now imagine an AC game with her as the protagonist.

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Canary in the Coal Mine @vaelis.bsky.social · 10h

Again I wonder how we can call an election fair that had an entire mass media system normalize - if not valorize - a man who had a mental break and danced on a rally stage for 45 minutes and is clearly this far gone. That repeatedly insisted Harris was the bigger liar and this was the better option.

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Murshed Zaheed @murshedz.bsky.social · 10h

When are we going to start seeing stories like this @nytimes.com? www.nytimes.com/2025/01/17/u...

NYT Screenshot:

'How Biden’s Inner Circle Protected a Faltering President
“Your biggest issue is the perception of age,” Mike Donilon, the president’s longtime strategist, told him in 2022, according to people who heard him."

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Jody Avirgan @jodyavirgan.com · 10h

Genuine question: When Trump describes the bombed out hellscapes of Portland and Chicago, has any reporter followed up to ask him specifically what images he has seen and where he saw them?

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onion person @junlper.beer · 10h

this is an explicitely nazi administration and anyone who still supports them should be viewed as such

Justin Baragona @justinbaragona.bsky.social · 11h

Incredible.

Jack Posobiec references the earliest version of antifa -- the anti-fascists in the Weimar Republic who were opposed to the Nazi Party -- as the bad guys.

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Canary in the Coal Mine @vaelis.bsky.social · 10h

If they have any issues they should just pretend the topic is about Obama taking a vacation. We all got an extended media lecture from pundits and Rs about the national security implications of a president being disconnected from the country/White House any time that happened.

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southpaw @nycsouthpaw.bsky.social · 11h

Everyone can set aside partisanship, psychologizing, pathologizing, whatever, and—I would hope—still see that it’s incredibly dangerous for a political leader to be this disconnected from the real conditions in the country.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 11h

Trump: "I don't know what could be worse than Portland. You don't even have stores anymore. They don't even put glass up. They put plywood on their windows."

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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 12h

no they're LITERALLY exaggerating this issue. there is absolutely no data backing up their claims. ffs just say that!!

NBC news: The discussions come as Trump has sought to deploy National Guard troops in several major cities — including Los Angeles, Chicago and Portland, Oregon — saying they’re needed to reduce crime and protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials from protesters. Critics have said that the Trump administration is exaggerating issues in those cities.

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Matthew Sheffield @matthew.flux.community · 11h

🧵 Trump is criminally invading states under false pretenses. His supporters are trying to instigate violence by dressing as antifa and committing crimes.

In this clip from Portland, Joey Gibson of "Patriot Prayer" and his fiancée, Lindsey Nichols, tried to cause trouble before being forced away.

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Canary in the Coal Mine @vaelis.bsky.social · 12h

We can thank John Roberts for all of it.

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Canary in the Coal Mine @vaelis.bsky.social · 12h

I wish people had taken them literally when they used the word “war” on “culture war”.

It always was the culture of the confederacy at war with the values of the union that defeated it. It was inevitable that if left to fester and gain power long enough it would end here.

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 14h

Pritzker: "It's unconscionable. This has never happened before. They're calling out troops onto the streets of a state that doesn't want them and they're not even telling us where they're gonna go, what they're gonna do. This hasn't happened I don't think since the Civil War."

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ae @aelkus.bsky.social · 18h

If you look at the sheer insanity of what government officials and agencies openly post on XShitter, it becomes abundantly obvious how much the press is complicit. If Dems did even a fraction of this poasting it would be saturated in news coverage.

Laura Jedeed @laurajedeed.bsky.social · 19h

More propaganda with painfully normal people zip-tied at the side of the road please, this will for sure convince the American people that you're the good guys

Homeland Security @DHSgov

We're having an All Night Revival

Still frame from a video: Painfully normal people zip tied on the side of the road, sitting on a guardrail in a row

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Dr. Allison Betus (she/her) 🌈 @allisonbetus.bsky.social · 1d

Folks, if ICE shot a pastor in the head with a pepper ball on camera, what do you think they do to people behind closed doors?

Kurt @flglchicago.bsky.social · 1d

Here’s video of the incident

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