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Tompaul Wheeler

@tompaulwheeler.bsky.social
372 followers 266 following 516 posts

Writer. Photographer. Filmmaker.

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Tompaul Wheeler @tompaulwheeler.bsky.social · 24m
It’s been at least two years since my last covid booster, but I didn’t expect to have such a strong immune response to the shot I got yesterday. Now I get to feel cold all day.
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Philip Gourevitch @pgourevitch.bsky.social · 19h
Racism got him here and he’s clinging to it like his life ring — it’s all he’s ever had, the gateway corruption from which all others flow — and look how far it’s got him and how horribly it’s cost us.
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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 23h
“Illegally detaining and brutalizing a racial minority until they agree to flee the country” isn’t immigration enforcement, it’s ethnic cleansing. There’s no legal standard here - these people meet the standard! What differentiates them is not their legal status but their race and color.
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Senator Ron Wyden @wyden.senate.gov · 09/10/2026
The administration that continues to cover up for pedophiles simply cannot be trusted with the care of hundreds of unaccompanied children with no oversight and no transparency
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Melissa Gira Grant @melissagiragrant.com · 09/10/2026
“Although [Mr. Belgal] was initially hospitalized, it appears that ICE moved quickly to transfer him out of the hospital to an unknown location—raising grave concerns for his health and well-being.” from @maketheroadny.bsky.social’s habeas petition filed today
courthousenews.com
ICE shot a man in New York City; his lawyers can’t find him
The agency claims Oscar Belgal "weaponized his vehicle” against agents in the Bronx, prompting them to fire seven shots at his car.
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gamera obscura october edition @ohrobin.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
A televised execution and a president making an investment in a contractor immediately before announcing a policy relevant to its business are two very different stories both deserving of attention, but the first is so viscerally horrifying the second seems mundane by comparison.
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Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
This would sink a presidency in any other era. I would bet most Americans will never hear it even happened.
wapo.st
Trump bought over $1 million in SpaceX debt days before unveiling space policy
The purchase, revealed in his latest financial disclosure, involved a firm directly affected by his administration’s actions — and led by presidential ally Elon Musk.
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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Imagine if the national media covered American politics through the lens of which party actually competently staffed & governed the country when it was in power, instead of covering it as horse races, theater, & grading on a curve for the One Special Boy & the far right authoritarian party.
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Coach Finstock @coachfinstock.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
People forget that J6 was successful. Everyone who participated was let out of jail and the guy who perpetrated it is President again. There were no consequences. They have plenty of incentive to do a much bigger and worse version.
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the babahuck @tylerhuckabee.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
“Springfield, Ohio—do you know that story? It’s a very sad story,” Trump said. Springfield, he insisted, had been a “beautiful” and “idyllic” little town—“that’s a word they use in high scripture: ‘idyllic’”—until those Haitians showed up.

“It was an idyllic place. Was, is the better word. Not anymore, but it soon will be. They’re all being brought back to their country.”

This, too, was spiritual leadership—though of a very different sort than I’d seen at St. John. Trump spoke with the leering confidence of a decade of MAGA-rally experience—secure in the knowledge that a crowd never loves him more than when he gives them permission to indulge in a little communal vice. And he was right. Whatever scruples, whatever discomfort they might have had going in, the crowd abandoned them now. They grinned, laughed, and struck up a chant: “Deport! Deport! Deport!”

Trump says they’re all going back. For Pierre Damas Bel’s friends and family, the future is murky; whether they can stay, and for how long, still remains to be seen. But they won’t all be going back. They buried Pierre Damas Bel on Saturday. He’s here to stay.
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Mr. Dan Zak @mrdanzak.com · 04/10/2026
A Haitian man legally immigrated to Ohio, then was given an ankle monitor bc Trump withdrew his status. He threw himself in front of truck. The trucker, who voted for Trump, is haunted. “Pierre was doing what he was supposed to do. We did not do right by him.” www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
theatlantic.com
A Reckoning in Springfield
A truck driver out on his route confronts what the country has become.
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Rachel Maddow @maddow.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
abcnews.com/US/18-year-i...
abcnews.com
18-year-old in ICE detention for more than 200 days: 'They just took me away'
Elder Chavez Carranza has spent more than 200 days in an immigration detention center in Louisiana, hundreds of miles from his home in Albertville, Alabama.
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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Wrote a thing Monday. Got held back and is a weekend read at the Guardian today. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
While the criminal justice system should address reports of rape, we know that rates of conviction are appallingly low for a number of reasons. Although, thanks to feminist interventions, the legal system is better equipped to understand this crime and less prejudiced against victims, we will not change the world through that means.

After rape allegations at Cornell University, why are women again being urged to talk to their sons? Why not men?
Gaby Hinsliff
Gaby Hinsliff
Read more
Sexual assault arises in part through both the entitlement and the desire to abuse and dehumanize women, which is in part about definitions of both masculinity and femininity: masculinity in that domination, violation and degradation are seen as status-enhancing, femininity in the perception that women’s bodies are for men to use, women’s voices and rights to be ignored.

The most compelling thing I’ve read in response to the Cornell case is in an essay by feminist writer Soraya Chemaly. She cites anthropologist Peggy Sanday, who told her that there are “rape-prone” and “rape-free” societies: “She found that in rape-free cultures, women have far more authority, status, safety and freedom.”

They’re societies in which women’s rights to bodily and social self-determination are respected, and a man who violates those rights would face severe consequences. “Rape-prone cultures, on the other hand, treat rape as an entitlement in a system that revolves around masculine contests and hierarchies.”

 rest at link
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Tompaul Wheeler @tompaulwheeler.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
I’ve always found fascinating that fundamentalists hate progress but love technology. Their embrace of AI clarified it for me—what they oppose is critical thinking.
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Doug Lindner @douglindner.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Dems’ 2028 platform should include stuff like letting soldiers have beards, letting TSA agents sit down, letting generals get their promotions, etc. The deep state isn’t real but civil and uniformed services are. We need them to know which side respects their human dignity before MAGA’s next coup.
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Elizabeth N. Saunders @profsaunders.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Withdraw from Iraq yesterday, send 10,000 troops and another carrier to fight Iran today. www.wsj.com/politics/nat...
wsj.com
U.S. Sending Third Aircraft Carrier, Up to 10,000 More Troops, to Middle East
The deployments come as President Trump weighs resuming bombing Iran after the midterms.
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Tompaul Wheeler @tompaulwheeler.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Over the past decade Nashville outbuilt every other US city. Its downtown population has tripled, and downtown traffic has fallen. While a sales tax increase to fund light rail failed to pass in 2018, in 2024 the same increase was approved to build up transit and pedestrian infrastructure.
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Jill Lawrence @jilldlawrence.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Unnerving @washingtonpost.com exclusive: US and Russia worked in secret to remove "a range of provisions designed to safeguard the use of artificial intelligence in weapons." For instance, leave targeting to AI, no human review required. Gift link 🎁 wapo.st/4yWadkR
wapo.st
U.S., Russia stripped human oversight from global AI weapons pact
The two nations weakened a range of safeguards in a landmark U.N. effort to try to regulate the use of lethal autonomous weaponry. The global negotiations earlier this month marked the furthest progre...
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Tompaul Wheeler @tompaulwheeler.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Social media topics can certainly be challenging to keep up with.
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Tompaul Wheeler @tompaulwheeler.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
“of this century” Anyway, the poll and article has been discussed on his timeline repeatedly over the past week.
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Tompaul Wheeler @tompaulwheeler.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Susan’s become what CSL would call a materialist—all that matters is the here and now. Her desire to be “grown up” has made her ironically immature. LWW’s dedicated to a woman who “is already too old for fairy tales” but will “someday be old enough [for] fairy tales again.” So, I think, with Susan.
Lewis’ dedication page for The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, to his goddaughter Lucy Barfield. He expresses that she’s now grown too old for fairy tales, but, he says, “some day you will be old enough to read fairy tales again.”
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Gillian Brockell @gillianbrockell.com · 22/09/2026
Trump's third-country removal scheme may be suspended, but the cruelty of ICE flights continues. This is yesterday, Monday, Sept. 21. --72+ flights, nearly every adult onboard shackled --12 removal flights --A removal flight headed to Myanmar
An ADSBx map of the lower continental US plus Mexico and Central America down to Nicaragua. There are dozens of flight lines across the map, mostly converging on Alexandria, Louisiana.
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Tompaul Wheeler @tompaulwheeler.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
It’s in response to this NYT piece, which simply narrows the focus to the past 25 years. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
nytimes.com
The 100 Best TV Shows of the 21st Century
More than 500 influential stars, showrunners and other notable names in the world of TV voted on the best series released since Jan. 1, 2000. See what they chose.
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Tompaul Wheeler @tompaulwheeler.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I watched maybe the first four episodes on a transatlantic flight and stopped when I realized I felt sorry for the characters, but I wasn’t invested in them.
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Tompaul Wheeler @tompaulwheeler.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
The list under debate are all from 2000 onwards.
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Scott L Greer @scottlgreer.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
1. Biden Dems & reality give huge incentive to EVs 2. Detroit adopts two-pronged strategy: milk gas guzzlers, sink money into great EVs (& lobby to give gas guzzlers a few extra years) 3. Trump goes 100% gas guzzling, Detroit writes off $$$$$ 4. Detroit asks for protection against Chinese cars. :(
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Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
If executive branch creates a system so that people under government control can be located and then just stops listing some people in that system — despite their still being under government control — that should be a five-alarm fire for the other branches, the states, and the public.
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Tompaul Wheeler @tompaulwheeler.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
I’ve been somewhat heartened by the fact that detesting online gambling is one thing that brings people on the left and right together.
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HigherEd Alicia @higheredalicia.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
ICE murders
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Tompaul Wheeler @tompaulwheeler.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
This is my Narnia rock opera.
The cover of the classic Second Chapter of Acts album “The Roar of Love.” The image shows Lucy and Susan riding the back of an Aslan who appears about the size of a school bus.
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Tompaul Wheeler @tompaulwheeler.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
I can’t wait to see it.
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Tompaul Wheeler @tompaulwheeler.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Will true Narnia fans boycott the audiobooks read by women—or at least mute all of Aslan’s dialogue?
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Tompaul Wheeler @tompaulwheeler.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
—when Aslan sings Narnia to life. I get those who want movies to be “just like the book,” but I’m still far more intrigued than concerned by all I’ve heard of the new movie so far. Anyway Narnia will be in public domain in 30 years so then anyone can make precisely the movies of their dreams.
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Tompaul Wheeler @tompaulwheeler.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
The Magician’s Nephew is my fave Narnia book, so let’s be real: It’s got likely the darkest scene in kids’ literature. In a flashback, the kids learn the world of Charn is dead because Queen Jadis committed ecocide rather than lose a civil war to her sister. TMN also has perhaps the brightest scene—
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Tompaul Wheeler @tompaulwheeler.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I love the aesthetic, but this makes him look way too cool. The whole point is his self-centered quest for mystery and power has made him pathetic.
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Tompaul Wheeler @tompaulwheeler.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
This makes him look way too cool. The whole point is his self-centered quest for mystery and power has made him pathetic.
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Tompaul Wheeler @tompaulwheeler.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
My favorite of the books. Lewis had such a knack for an intriguing opening that BOOM throws you right into the story.
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Tompaul Wheeler @tompaulwheeler.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
It was a story about a war or other catastrophe where someone set a fire in a field to send a signal.
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Tompaul Wheeler @tompaulwheeler.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
25 yrs ago today, I walked out of a sermon. Title: “God’s 911 Call to the World.” It featured an old Chinese story about someone who lit a fire to get people’s attention. I found it utterly tone deaf. I look for God’s hand in world events. Something’s wrong, though, if we lose sight of His heart.
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Aaron Cynic @aaroncynic.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Incredible headline here (among other things)
theguardian.com
Texas police department ordered closed for failing to provide any benefit to community
Disbanding of department in Trinidad comes after arrest of a resident for posting about issues with local water supply
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Asha Rangappa @asharangappa.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
So a big part of Iran Contra and one of the (many) reasons it was illegal was that third party fund weren’t deposited into the U.S. Treasury
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Ryan Marino, MD @ryanmarino.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
The rule they are overturning was predicted to give $120 billion in public health benefits by 2047, with projections that by 2035, it would would prevent up to 1,200 premature deaths, 870 hospital and emergency room visits, 360K asthma attacks, 48K school absence days and 57K lost workdays each year
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Tompaul Wheeler @tompaulwheeler.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
A thoughtful piece. The gospels, written decades after Christ, address issues relevant to their original audience. The question behind their many Sabbath stories is not whether to observe Sabbath, but how. Jesus emphasizes Sabbath not as a time of abstinence, but as a restorative day to “do good.”
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Tompaul Wheeler @tompaulwheeler.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
This description sounds way too familiar in 2026.
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Tompaul Wheeler @tompaulwheeler.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
I attended U2’s first concert after 9/11, at Notre Dame University. Bono’s known for his heart on his sleeve, but there was a mournfulness mixed with hope that spoke to the moment like nothing else. Also, “Please” from Pop, informed by their Irish background, could have been about 9/11.
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Tompaul Wheeler @tompaulwheeler.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
The U.S. economy is eight times larger now than fifty years ago. The difference is that the gains have been overwhelmingly claimed by the wealthy.
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Justin Baragona @justinbaragona.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
So the GOP is celebrating a guy who created a darknet marketplace for heroin and meth, and put out multiple muder-for-hire contacts to conceal his crimes.
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Tompaul Wheeler @tompaulwheeler.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Republicans have long accused Democrats of “buying votes” when they promise policies that benefit people.
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Michael Stahlke @michaelstahlke.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Marco Rubio was confirmed as Secretary of State on a 99-0 vote.
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shauna @goldengateblond.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
chess dot com probably doesn’t have much money but they clearly have enough to own the world’s richest man
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