Paul B.T.
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pennsylvanisch.bsky.social
Paul B.T.
@pennsylvanisch.bsky.social
Presbyterian.
Against Klansmen, neo-Nazis, and ICE.
Pritzker for President, I'm pretty sure.
Reposted by Paul B.T.
Simba from The Lion King is a Moses figure.

He was raised as a prince, flees home to avoid a murder rap, finds a new home for himself with a different group far from the land he was raised, then receives a message from beyond that calls him home, where he confronts the king and saves his people.
November 16, 2025 at 3:45 AM
Reposted by Paul B.T.
yep. this is, notably, the case wrt to the "brain isn't fully developed until age 25" myth. Brains do not stop developing and there is nothing notable that happens to them at age 25. There's just a development study that stopped following up at that age.
In general you can safely assume that any claim about human bodies that says "this stops at a hard cutoff of [x] years" actually means "the studies on this ran out of funding at [x] years"
November 15, 2025 at 11:08 PM
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Reminder that the Refugee Convention was born out of the international community’s shame at failing to provide sanctuary to victims of the Nazis.

Shabana Mahmood seems to think we should’ve failed the survivors as well, by sending them back the second the Nazis were defeated.
UK set to limit refugees to temporary stays
Shabana Mahmood is expected to say the era of permanent protection for refugees is over, in major changes to the UK's asylum and immigration system.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 15, 2025 at 6:40 PM
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ICE vs the clergy
November 15, 2025 at 1:32 AM
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From this minister's op-ed: "People wanting to experience God are more likely to meet the Divine trying to shut down the Broadview, Illinois, ICE facility than we ever were in church...God does not live in our houses of worship, but...with those who are bearing the brunt of cruelty in this moment."
Oh wow @reuters.com got the photo here:
November 14, 2025 at 9:38 PM
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We are much better served with leaders who made it through college with a B average but believe in liberal democracy than leaders who got straight As and believe in nothing but their own success
November 14, 2025 at 8:52 PM
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That seems like a sane response to the political situation here. There’s a chance that not only will women lose the right to abortion nationally but also birth control. Then there’s the problem of the manosphere teaching young men that women are undesirable unless they are doormats.
November 13, 2025 at 3:20 PM
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Funny that the 'only liberals have agency" framing is adopted even on the Right, they've essentially made themselves NPCs
checking on ross "i would do anything for love but i won't" douthat
November 11, 2025 at 10:23 PM
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“whatever club he’s invited to join has been devalued by the invitation”
November 11, 2025 at 3:05 AM
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November 10, 2025 at 7:51 PM
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November 10, 2025 at 7:20 PM
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One predictable downside of making it "no this is only about ACA, our only demand" is that does get harder to defend as time goes on and the shutdown pain stacks up. The line for giving up on that, taking its loss as the lesser evil, is much lower than "we're not funding this fascist police state."
November 10, 2025 at 5:54 AM
Reposted by Paul B.T.
To say this was Dems voting, e.g., to fund ICE paychecks isn't unfair or an exaggeration. It's literally true. That they'd already given up on even trying to do anything about that doesn't change it, it's still in there. This is what constitutional accountability for the power of the purse is for.
November 10, 2025 at 5:50 AM
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I really want to go to the ICE facility here and pray and preach Matthew 25 again and again until everyone there has it memorized and knows they cant feign ignorance on the last day
November 8, 2025 at 9:52 PM
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the only time the filibuster has ever been used to protect a particular interest of a set of states is to kill anti-lynching and civil rights legislation. that's it.
November 8, 2025 at 10:14 PM
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so my town has been hosting an emergency food drive for snap recipients. the town, high school clubs, the Y, the churches (Episcopal, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Baptists, Unitarians, and the Catholics) & the synagogue, are involved.

You know who isn't participating? the fucking evangelicals.
November 7, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Reposted by Paul B.T.
TAKEN AT HER COURT HEARING. To all those Americans deceiving themselves that ICE is only going after rapists and murderers, another reminder that’s a lie. They are targeting folks doing the right thing, because it is easier and otherwise they don’t have enough people to arrest. Wake up now.
November 7, 2025 at 8:22 AM
Reposted by Paul B.T.
I hate this shit.

pursuing sex doesn't make you a better man or a better person. first of all, women aren't there for you to self actualize. and second, if someone doesn't have sex or want to have sex, that doesn't make them a bad person. 1
Scott Galloway: “Sex and the pursuit of it, turning you into a better man, we need to embrace that — not pathologize it.” Watch the Mingle Project Episode 7 https://youtu.be/yjF53GHitA8
November 6, 2025 at 4:14 AM
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Here's a short video of an Edison Park man confronting border patrol. You can hear others in the background. #chicago
October 31, 2025 at 7:54 PM
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Video taken by Jay Shefsky at 12:20 p.m. after the crash happened, Oakton Street/Asbury Avenue in Evanston, IL
October 31, 2025 at 6:45 PM
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I found this piece sad too, but mostly because it is part of a years-long effort by progressives to understand what "really" animates Trump voters.

We already know! It is racism, misogyny and misinformation. I know that sounds condescending or whatever but it's simply what all evidence suggests.
October 30, 2025 at 10:22 AM
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I know it's hard for people to get their heads around, but anti establishment/establishment is not actually a consistent moral policy division, and treating it as such takes you really bad places.
October 31, 2025 at 2:32 AM
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When I worked in WaPo Opinions in 2017-2018, senior editors specifically told junior editors not to factcheck Marc Thiessen and other MAGA columnists, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to publish anything by them at all, and “we need them for intellectual diversity.”
It’s very telling that opening your publication to MAGA “thought” requires a massive downgrade in quality control.
October 30, 2025 at 10:38 PM
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I keep seeing people say, oh, trans people must take a hit for the greater good and, first of all, no, you don't get to discard someone else's rights and second, we know from past experience that marginalized communities like theirs are merely the first to be targeted. They'll come for you next.
npr.org NPR @npr.org · 17d
The White House plans to bar hospitals that treat transgender children and youth from getting any Medicare and Medicaid payments. The move would affect trans youth who have private insurance, too. n.pr/4qFa1mY
Trump pushes an end to medical care for transgender youth nationally
The White House plans to bar hospitals that treat transgender children and youth from getting any Medicare and Medicaid payments. The move would affect trans youth who have private insurance, too.
n.pr
October 30, 2025 at 11:56 PM
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Tolkien fought in the Battle of the Somme. He saw the horrors of war, and the moments of bravery and fear within it up close.

And after all that. ALL that. He wrote Lord of the Rings. He declared true bravery and masculinity to be love, friendship and humbleness.

Musk is everything he hated.
October 29, 2025 at 10:29 PM