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@serenakyle.bsky.social

14K followers 16K following 650 posts

Retired teacher of humanities who is always searching for the “human”part. 💙 crew🧢.
Mom of 🏳️‍🌈 hero, Mimi of an IVF miracle, Aunt of 🏳️‍⚧️ nieces! Proud of all and shall fight to the death for their rights.

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serenakyle.bsky.social @serenakyle.bsky.social · Jan 19

Pinned for predictive sake (and hoping my sleepless nights are for naught). Hoping but not believing.

Andrew Coyne, a highly respected Canadian columnist with the Globe and Mail, pulls no punches on the incoming US administration:
"Nothing mattered, in the end. Not the probable dementia, the unfathomable ignorance, the emotional incontinence; not, certainly, the shambling, hate-filled campaign, or the ludicrously unworkable anti-policies.
The candidate out on bail in four jurisdictions, the convicted fraud artist, the adjudicated rapist and serial sexual predator, the habitual bankrupt, the stooge of Vladimir Putin, the man who tried to overturn the last election and all of his creepy retinue of crooks, ideologues and lunatics: Americans took a long look at all this and said, yes please.
There is no sense in understating the depth of the disaster. This is a crisis like no other in our lifetimes. The government of the United States has been delivered into the hands of a gangster, whose sole purpose in running, besides staying out of jail, is to seek revenge on his enemies. The damage Donald Trump and his nihilist cronies can do - to America, but also to its democratic allies, and to the peace and security of the world - is incalculable. We are living in the time of Nero.

The first six months will be a time of maximum peril. NATO must from this moment be considered effectively obsolete, without the American security guarantee that has always been its bedrock. We may see new incursions by Russia into Europe - the poor Ukrainians are probably done for, but now it is the Baltics and the Poles who must worry - before the Europeans have time to organize an alternative.
China may also accelerate its Taiwanese ambitions.
At home, Mr. Trump will be moving swiftly to consolidate his power. Some of this will be institutional - the replacement of tens of thousands of career civil servants with Trumpian loyalists. But some of it will be ... atmospheric.
At some point someone - a company whose chief executive has displeased him, a media critic who has gotten under his skin — will find themselves the subject of unwanted attention from the Trump administration. It might not be so crude as a police arrest. It might just be a little regulatory matter, a tax audit, something like that. They will seek the protection of the courts, and find it is not there.

The judges are also Trump loyalists, perhaps, or too scared to confront him. Or they might issue a ruling, and find it has no effect - that the administration has called the basic bluff of liberal democracy: the idea that, in the crunch, people in power agree to be bound by the law, and by its instruments the courts, the same as everyone else. Then everyone will take their cue. Executives will line up to court him. Media organizations, the large ones anyway, will find reasons to be cheerful.
Of course, in reality things will start to fall apart fairly quickly. The huge across-the-board tariffs he imposes will tank the world economy.
The massive deficits, fueled by his ill-judged tax policies - he won't replace the income tax, as he promised, but will fill it with holes - and monetized, at his direction, by the Federal Reserve, will ignite a new round of inflation.
Most of all, the insane project of deporting 12 million undocumented immigrants - finding them, rounding them up and detaining them in hundreds of internment camps around the country, probably for years, before doing so - will consume his administration. But by then it will be too late.

We should not count upon the majority of Americans coming to their senses in any event.
They were not able to see Mr. Trump for what he was before: why should that change? Would they not, rather, be further coarsened by the experience of seeing their neighbours dragged off by the police, or the military, further steeled to the necessity of doing "tough things" to
"restore order?"
Some won't, of course. But they will find in time that the democratic levers they might once have pulled to demand change are no longer attached to anything. There are still elections, but the rules have been altered: there are certain obstacles, certain disadvantages if you are not with the party of power. It will seem easier at first to try to change things from within. Then it will be easier not to change things.
All of this will wash over Canada in various ways - some predictable, like the flood of refugees seeking escape from the camps; some less so, like the coarsening of our own politics, the debasement of morals and norms by politicians who have discovered there is no political price to be paid for it. And who will have the backing of their patron in Washington.

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D. Earl Stephens

@dearlstephens.bsky.social

📌They appease Vladimir Putin and come after Mark Kelly.

Traitors. All of ‘em.

November 25, 2025 at 3:32 AM

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Mrs. Betty Bowers

@mrsbettybowers.bsky.social

Marjorie Taylor Greene's resigning in time to get a pension is a lesson to everyone.

Most Americans don't get *any* pension anymore, but Congress gave itself a pension after only five years of work.

Our "representatives" aren't working for us, they are [barely] working for themselves.

November 24, 2025 at 2:16 PM

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Captain Mark Kelly

@captmarkkelly.bsky.social

I swore an oath to the Constitution in 1986. I've upheld it through 25 years of service and every day since I retired.

If Trump's trying to intimidate me, it won’t work. I’ve given too much to our country to be silenced by bullies who care more about power than the Constitution.

November 24, 2025 at 8:27 PM

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Peter Baker

@peterbakernyt.bsky.social

Judge dismissed separate criminal charges against Comey and James, saying their prosecutor’s appointment was invalid — a major defeat for the president’s effort to make the criminal justice system do as he pleases. @alanfeuer.bsky.social Devlin Barrett www.nytimes.com/2025/11/24/n...

Judge Dismisses Cases Against Comey and James, Finding Trump Prosecutor Was Unlawfully Appointed

www.nytimes.com

November 24, 2025 at 6:24 PM

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Lucky Adams (aka JDAdams Author)

@luckyadams.bsky.social

Seen & shared

November 23, 2025 at 5:32 AM

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Governor Gavin Newsom

@governor.ca.gov

NEW: California reaches a historic milestone in wildfire response as @calfire.bsky.social brings on 650 new officers this year.

While Donald Trump undercuts federal readiness for mega-fires that threaten communities, we continue to dominate with key investments in fire preparedness.

November 23, 2025 at 5:43 PM

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Democracy Docket

@democracydocket.com

Officials are facing threats and intimidation for resisting Trump’s plan. The situation is particularly alarming in Indiana, where four Republican lawmakers have been targeted in so-called “swatting” incidents after voting against partisan redistricting. https://bit.ly/4a2EfKu

Those Who Resist Trump’s Gerrymander Bid Face Threats, Intimidation

Read more here.

bit.ly

November 23, 2025 at 1:00 AM

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Mueller, She Wrote

@muellershewrote.com

This kid is brilliant. Voice of a generation.

The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 3d

🎵 “Join Ice” - @wellesmusic on Colbert

November 22, 2025 at 9:22 PM

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altNOAA 🇺🇸

@altnoaa.bsky.social

I hope someday I can find someone who looks at me like this. It's all just so sweet.

November 22, 2025 at 2:17 AM

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Brian Tyler Cohen

@briantylercohen.bsky.social

BREAKING: Marjorie Taylor Greene announces that she is resigning from office effective January 5, 2026.

November 22, 2025 at 1:18 AM

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Jeffrey AKA The Hairless Hippie

@mojochefjeff.bsky.social

Despicable
open.substack.com/pub/steady/p...
Great read from Dan Rather:
"...The very existence of a free press is a threat to this president’s modus operandi, which is to govern by lying. Why would he want people around him who ask for facts and truthful answers?..."
#BlueCrew #MisogynistInChief

Despicable

The bully-in-chief is targeting women in the White House press corps

open.substack.com

November 21, 2025 at 4:04 AM

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Heather Cox Richardson (TDPR)

@hcrichardson.bsky.social

Before the midterms of 1866, President Andrew Johnson called his congressional opponents traitors and said they should be hanged.

Voters were so profoundly moved by his words... that they gave his opponents a supermajority in Congress, and the nation got the Fourteenth Amendment.

November 20, 2025 at 3:33 PM

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Peter Baker

@peterbakernyt.bsky.social

About one-third of noncitizen immigrants say they avoid aspects of everyday life like talking to the police, applying for a job or traveling so as not to draw attention to their immigration status, per @nytimes.com @kff.org poll. @mirjordan.bsky.social Ruth Igielnik www.nytimes.com/2025/11/19/u...

How Noncitizens, Anxious Under Trump, Are Altering Their Lives

www.nytimes.com

November 19, 2025 at 1:51 PM

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Brian Tyler Cohen

@briantylercohen.bsky.social

The Trump administration has declared that swastikas and nooses are no longer classified as hate symbols.

November 20, 2025 at 7:15 PM

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Andrew Levesque

@andrewlevesque.bsky.social

apnews.com/article/nati...
Finally…

Judge orders Trump administration to end National Guard deployment in DC

A federal judge is ordering the Trump administration to end its monthslong deployment of National Guard troops to help police the nation’s capital. U.S.

apnews.com

November 20, 2025 at 8:36 PM

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Angry

@angrystaffer.bsky.social

Coast Guard will no longer classify swastikas, nooses, as hate symbols.

The fuck?

wapo.st/3Mbd9a6

U.S. Coast Guard will no longer classify swastikas, nooses as hate symbols

The military service, which falls under the Department of Homeland Security, has drafted a new policy that classifies such items “potentially divisive.”

wapo.st

November 20, 2025 at 6:33 PM

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ProPublica

@propublica.org

Interviews and records show the White House intervened on behalf of accused sex trafficker Andrew Tate during a federal investigation.

The incident is the latest in a string of matters where the Trump administration has inserted itself to help friends and target foes.

The White House Intervened on Behalf of Accused Sex Trafficker Andrew Tate During a Federal Investigation

Federal authorities were chided for seizing electronic devices from Tate and his brother, and told to return them, records and interviews show. Experts said the intervention was highly inappropriate.

www.propublica.org

November 20, 2025 at 4:30 AM

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George Conway ⚖️🇺🇸

@gtconway.bsky.social

tl;dr:

The United States
House of Representatives has unanimously passed a bipartisan resolution effectively declaring Senator Lindsey Graham to be a ridiculous twit

November 20, 2025 at 3:41 AM

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Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD

@elizabethjacobs.bsky.social

This is completely disgusting. Today, the CDC updated their vaccine safety page. It now says:

“The claim "vaccines do not cause autism" is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism”.

Vaccine Safety
MENU V
For Everyone
NOV. 19, 2025
KEY POINTS
• The claim "vaccines do not cause autism" is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism.
• Studies supporting a link have been ignored by health authorities.
• HHS has launched a comprehensive assessment of the causes of autism,
including investigations on plausible biologic mechanisms and potential causal links.

November 20, 2025 at 2:53 AM

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Dan Diamond

@ddiamond.bsky.social

RFK Jr had committed to Bill Cassidy, as a condition to win his vote, that he would keep website language.

Cassidy in February: “If confirmed… CDC will not remove statements on their website pointing out that vaccines do not cause autism.”

Note the language in second photo.

November 20, 2025 at 2:42 AM

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Mueller, She Wrote

@muellershewrote.com

Alright, alright. I did not expect this at all. Happy to have been wrong about this not passing the House.

Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 5d

Breaking: The House voted unanimously, 426-0, to strip a provision in the funding bill that allowed senators to sue the government for $500K if their phone data was searched without their knowledge.

The provision was designed for GOP senators to sue over the Jack Smith investigation.

November 20, 2025 at 3:25 AM

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Kyle Griffin

@kylegriffin1.bsky.social

Kash Patel's country music performer girlfriend currently enjoys the protection of an FBI security detail — prompting concerns that the arrangement may delay law enforcement from responding to other incidents, two people with direct knowledge tell MS NOW. www.ms.now/news/kash-pa...