Canary
@vaelis.bsky.social
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 🙂
Pinned
Canary
@vaelis.bsky.social
· Feb 26
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.
So here's a pinned thread collecting those resources, some made by me and some made by others.
This is an excellent compilation of resources for folks looking to take action. Thank you Laura for putting it together.
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Calling it now: the US political media's treatment of AOC is going to make their treatment of Hillary Clinton or Al Gore look like a model of balance and discretion.
Have you ever once seen the New York Times quote Trump like this?
February 16, 2026 at 7:38 PM
Calling it now: the US political media's treatment of AOC is going to make their treatment of Hillary Clinton or Al Gore look like a model of balance and discretion.
Reposted by Canary
“Readers should be able to assume that every word between quotation marks is what the speaker or writer said… The writer should, of course, omit extraneous syllables like ‘um’ and may judiciously delete false starts.”
-NYT ethical guidelines
-NYT ethical guidelines
Have you ever once seen the New York Times quote Trump like this?
February 16, 2026 at 7:48 PM
“Readers should be able to assume that every word between quotation marks is what the speaker or writer said… The writer should, of course, omit extraneous syllables like ‘um’ and may judiciously delete false starts.”
-NYT ethical guidelines
-NYT ethical guidelines
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It is absolutely a choice.
Have you ever once seen the New York Times quote Trump like this?
February 16, 2026 at 6:58 PM
It is absolutely a choice.
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new newsletter post up about all those folks who insist they "can't have an open conversation about AI"
The Problem With AI Is Shitty Human Beings
The problem with AI isn't going to be Skynet. It's going to be amoral extraction class assholes applying half-cooked automation at scale onto deeply broken sectors in exploitative ways in a country t...
karlbode.com
February 16, 2026 at 6:10 PM
new newsletter post up about all those folks who insist they "can't have an open conversation about AI"
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Melinda Cooper on Epstein class & billionaire far-right desire to rule a household economy:
"Epstein’s victims experienced the rule of master and servant not just as economic but sexual violence. They were the first to name and resist our emergent political order."
www.equator.org/articles/eps...
"Epstein’s victims experienced the rule of master and servant not just as economic but sexual violence. They were the first to name and resist our emergent political order."
www.equator.org/articles/eps...
Epstein Family Values • EQUATOR
The billionaire patriarchs of the American far-right want to rule an economy of masters and servants
www.equator.org
February 14, 2026 at 6:20 PM
Melinda Cooper on Epstein class & billionaire far-right desire to rule a household economy:
"Epstein’s victims experienced the rule of master and servant not just as economic but sexual violence. They were the first to name and resist our emergent political order."
www.equator.org/articles/eps...
"Epstein’s victims experienced the rule of master and servant not just as economic but sexual violence. They were the first to name and resist our emergent political order."
www.equator.org/articles/eps...
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If you want to understand why rich guys are turning back to eugenics and recreating the rhetoric and theology of slavery, it’s because they know on some level this level of wealth inequality is unjustifiable bsky.app/profile/marl...
February 16, 2026 at 6:06 PM
If you want to understand why rich guys are turning back to eugenics and recreating the rhetoric and theology of slavery, it’s because they know on some level this level of wealth inequality is unjustifiable bsky.app/profile/marl...
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People really reaching to make the Epstein story about anything other than gender.
February 16, 2026 at 5:54 PM
People really reaching to make the Epstein story about anything other than gender.
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What Epstein reveals is the ubiquitous sexual abuse of women & girls as a way for men to cement their friendships and demonstrate their status. It happens among billionaires, it happens among frat boys, it happens among preachers and tech workers and union contractors, because it happens among men.
February 16, 2026 at 5:58 PM
What Epstein reveals is the ubiquitous sexual abuse of women & girls as a way for men to cement their friendships and demonstrate their status. It happens among billionaires, it happens among frat boys, it happens among preachers and tech workers and union contractors, because it happens among men.
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I see no reason not to look at the online gambling and prediction market craze as a new opioids crisis.
It will wreak havoc on lower-income Americans and leave a trail of destruction and despair in its wake.
The companies are just Purdue Pharma 2.0
www.liberalcurrents.com/from-pill-mi...
It will wreak havoc on lower-income Americans and leave a trail of destruction and despair in its wake.
The companies are just Purdue Pharma 2.0
www.liberalcurrents.com/from-pill-mi...
From Pill Mills to Prop Bets: Prediction Markets and Mobile Sports Betting Apps Are Fueling America’s Next Addiction Crisis
Against the gamblification of the world.
www.liberalcurrents.com
February 12, 2026 at 3:00 PM
I see no reason not to look at the online gambling and prediction market craze as a new opioids crisis.
It will wreak havoc on lower-income Americans and leave a trail of destruction and despair in its wake.
The companies are just Purdue Pharma 2.0
www.liberalcurrents.com/from-pill-mi...
It will wreak havoc on lower-income Americans and leave a trail of destruction and despair in its wake.
The companies are just Purdue Pharma 2.0
www.liberalcurrents.com/from-pill-mi...
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Elimination of emissions standards was one of the pretty clear policy stakes of the 2024 election and it received about 1% as much coverage as whether Tim Walz retiring from the national guard after 21 years was cowardly.
“The U.S. no longer has emission standards of any meaning,” said Margo T. Oge, who served as the E.P.A.’s top vehicle emissions regulator under three presidents and has since advised both automakers and environmental groups…
“Nothing. Zero,” she added. “Not many countries have zero.”
“Nothing. Zero,” she added. “Not many countries have zero.”
With Latest Rollback, the U.S. Essentially Has No Clean-Car Rules
www.nytimes.com
February 16, 2026 at 2:33 PM
Elimination of emissions standards was one of the pretty clear policy stakes of the 2024 election and it received about 1% as much coverage as whether Tim Walz retiring from the national guard after 21 years was cowardly.
Reposted by Canary
“The U.S. no longer has emission standards of any meaning,” said Margo T. Oge, who served as the E.P.A.’s top vehicle emissions regulator under three presidents and has since advised both automakers and environmental groups…
“Nothing. Zero,” she added. “Not many countries have zero.”
“Nothing. Zero,” she added. “Not many countries have zero.”
With Latest Rollback, the U.S. Essentially Has No Clean-Car Rules
www.nytimes.com
February 16, 2026 at 12:28 PM
“The U.S. no longer has emission standards of any meaning,” said Margo T. Oge, who served as the E.P.A.’s top vehicle emissions regulator under three presidents and has since advised both automakers and environmental groups…
“Nothing. Zero,” she added. “Not many countries have zero.”
“Nothing. Zero,” she added. “Not many countries have zero.”
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Someone has sure already made this observation but the fact they can convert all those empty warehouses into prison camps means they could have converted them into housing, community centers, job training centers or, hell, libraries or schools all along. It’s always a matter of will not resources.
February 15, 2026 at 5:30 PM
Someone has sure already made this observation but the fact they can convert all those empty warehouses into prison camps means they could have converted them into housing, community centers, job training centers or, hell, libraries or schools all along. It’s always a matter of will not resources.
Reposted by Canary
We can't fall into right-wing populism’s lie that the most vulnerable in society are to blame for wealth inequality in our countries. We need to build movements that tell the truth: the story of wealth inequality is not a cultural one, but a class one.
February 15, 2026 at 8:11 PM
We can't fall into right-wing populism’s lie that the most vulnerable in society are to blame for wealth inequality in our countries. We need to build movements that tell the truth: the story of wealth inequality is not a cultural one, but a class one.
Reposted by Canary
A quick "whoa, really? that's really fucked up, man" from a white dude to another white dude for expressing a conservative opinion is (sadly) one of the most effective ways to change that white dude's behavior. Not usually the underlying beliefs, but the behavior. It gets in their kitchen.
Part of my theory of change is to share the words white men need to hear, spoken by white men. This is because creating defections is crucial to stopping authoritarianism and democratic backsliding. This is because almost everyone else is already off the Trump train.
"I never want to see a child ever run away from our own government ever again"
Notes on changing brains. And Brians.
www.thefarce.org
February 16, 2026 at 12:20 PM
A quick "whoa, really? that's really fucked up, man" from a white dude to another white dude for expressing a conservative opinion is (sadly) one of the most effective ways to change that white dude's behavior. Not usually the underlying beliefs, but the behavior. It gets in their kitchen.
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It’s so funny to think about the fact that there’s people out there deferring every life decision to this
February 14, 2026 at 9:53 AM
It’s so funny to think about the fact that there’s people out there deferring every life decision to this
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Democracy is when voters choose their leaders. Autocracy is when leaders choose their voters.
Kristi Noem: "When it gets to Election Day, we've been proactive to make sure we have the right people voting, electing the right leaders to lead this country."
February 14, 2026 at 3:33 PM
Democracy is when voters choose their leaders. Autocracy is when leaders choose their voters.
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Yesterday morning kids were sent running from their bus stop in panic because ICE showed up. This guy at today’s ICE Out of Lindenwold protest is a must watch 😭. @maddow.bsky.social
February 14, 2026 at 2:37 AM
Yesterday morning kids were sent running from their bus stop in panic because ICE showed up. This guy at today’s ICE Out of Lindenwold protest is a must watch 😭. @maddow.bsky.social
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This is something the Nazis used to do to Jewish children in the camps. It happened to a man I knew when he was a child in Auschwitz. The camp guards thought it was funny as hell.
On Thanksgiving, the immigrant children held at the Dilley detention center gathered in the gym for what they thought was a holiday feast.
The kids salivated over a spread of turkey, sandwiches, pastries and pies, a family told me.
But the food wasn’t for detainees — it was for the staff.
The kids salivated over a spread of turkey, sandwiches, pastries and pies, a family told me.
But the food wasn’t for detainees — it was for the staff.
February 13, 2026 at 8:09 PM
This is something the Nazis used to do to Jewish children in the camps. It happened to a man I knew when he was a child in Auschwitz. The camp guards thought it was funny as hell.
Reposted by Canary
Anyone currently involved in federal immigration enforcement, every officer, every bureaucrat, every lawyer, every judge, is a member of the most evil group of people this country has seen since Reconstruction. Darkness personified, every one. Doing this to children is beyond depraved.
On Thanksgiving, the immigrant children held at the Dilley detention center gathered in the gym for what they thought was a holiday feast.
The kids salivated over a spread of turkey, sandwiches, pastries and pies, a family told me.
But the food wasn’t for detainees — it was for the staff.
The kids salivated over a spread of turkey, sandwiches, pastries and pies, a family told me.
But the food wasn’t for detainees — it was for the staff.
February 13, 2026 at 8:21 PM
Anyone currently involved in federal immigration enforcement, every officer, every bureaucrat, every lawyer, every judge, is a member of the most evil group of people this country has seen since Reconstruction. Darkness personified, every one. Doing this to children is beyond depraved.
Reposted by Canary
it's not the worst thing AI is doing but: i love cat videos so much and it's so annoying that people are posting ai cat videos now
February 13, 2026 at 5:44 PM
it's not the worst thing AI is doing but: i love cat videos so much and it's so annoying that people are posting ai cat videos now
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a reporter could get trump to confess to everything by asking him if he just wasnt famous enough to go to the island, just say youve heard he “never had the juice”
February 13, 2026 at 1:12 PM
a reporter could get trump to confess to everything by asking him if he just wasnt famous enough to go to the island, just say youve heard he “never had the juice”
Reposted by Canary
I called up one of the White House's "special government employees" involved in the Fulton County FBI raid.
I ended up on the phone for almost two hours hearing about the "deep state" "cabal," "Satanists," poison soda, and the "pure evil" of "gay pride." talkingpointsmemo.com/news/meet-th...
I ended up on the phone for almost two hours hearing about the "deep state" "cabal," "Satanists," poison soda, and the "pure evil" of "gay pride." talkingpointsmemo.com/news/meet-th...
February 11, 2026 at 11:53 PM
I called up one of the White House's "special government employees" involved in the Fulton County FBI raid.
I ended up on the phone for almost two hours hearing about the "deep state" "cabal," "Satanists," poison soda, and the "pure evil" of "gay pride." talkingpointsmemo.com/news/meet-th...
I ended up on the phone for almost two hours hearing about the "deep state" "cabal," "Satanists," poison soda, and the "pure evil" of "gay pride." talkingpointsmemo.com/news/meet-th...