He was a master craftsman in Norway who had reached the age of retirement, but decided to move his whole family to America because poverty was so bad and there were no prospects for his kids.

https://twitter.com/vandaliaposts/status/1654471430858219520

He was an incredibly inventive man who loved new technology. His furniture often included mechanical traps and hidden compartments.

What depresses me about Picard is how cynical the whole thing is. It’s not that shows like TNG or DS9 didn’t want to be successful, of course they did, but fundamentally they had stories they wanted to tell and themes they wanted to explore. Picard has nothing to say. It’s hollow. Empty. It’s inviting you to remember how you felt when you watched earlier shows. I’m kinda tired of companies having contempt for me. I get enough of that from Apple, I don’t need it from Paramount too.

Strange moments early in today’s arraignment as the former President opened a briefcase filled with loose pizza slices. Judge Merchan asked a bailiff to remove the pizza, causing the former president to strip down to the waist and scream about George Sosros. Shortly thereafter a man dressed as a patriotic clown burst into the courtroom and made a dash for the former president. Judge Merchan demanded the clown to be taken into custody, with predictable results.

Different artists paint the ninja turtles: Picasso, Caravaggio, Van Gogh, and Kahlo. @DrewSav relevant to your interests.

Re: Fetterman. Depression is a thief, a liar, a tormenter. It doesn't care how tough you are, how smart you are, how successful you are, or how loved you are. It tells you that you're worthless, that people hate you, that everyone in your life would be better if you were dead. It makes everything harder, even the simplest things. It makes interacting with people difficult. It makes you want to hide away from the world. It's brutal. And a big chunk of the population will still tell you to suck it up and go for a walk, get a little sun.

I guess tonight is the fourth anniversary of my dad’s death. Hard to believe. I still expect him to show up unannounced with some weird scheme. The kind of thing that exhausted me at the time but now I miss. It was always something weird and just barely legal. Not in a Gaetz way. From the time I turned about 19 my dad spent his life struggling. He made a ton of money in the 80s and 90s, but he both spent bit and gave big. He was always helping people with problems big and small.

Every president of my lifetime has fundamentally believed america was a great nation. That belief sometimes helped lead them astray, but at their core even the worst presidents believed in the idea of America. Trump is the first who did not. To him there was nothing sacred about the office, no duty to its people, the presidency was just another brand to exploit. The man believes in nothing, which is part of what makes him so inscrutable. There’s no driving ideology beyond animosity and accumulating wealth. That’s it.

My grandmother had some weird bigotries and they were all over the road. She was antisemitic, like a lot of other garbage people of her generation, but she was also heavily involved with the Japanese-American community and spearheaded building a Japanese garden in her town She was horrified by internment camps and general anti-Japanese sentiment following the war and felt it was her duty to do what she could to foster friendship between the Japanese-Americans in her community and other groups.

I may have told the story before, but my oldest and dumbest brother was in the Navy when the US had a standoff with Libya. When he got back his dumb ass claimed (and I don’t believe him) that he jammed Libyan radio signals with The Cure’s Killing an Arab. The whole story is ridiculous, but heads especially funny to me is Killing an Arab is not literally about killing anyone: it’s about the events of Albert Camus’ The Stranger.

Continuing my 80s/90s political thriller kick. Weird how Jack Ryan aged 22 years in 6 years. Field work really takes it out of you.

One of my brothers left Facebook because he said he couldn't tell what was true and what wasn't. I find that level of self-awareness really endearing. He's a good guy who knows his limitations--and we all have limitations. Another of my brothers is a religious Tucker Carlson watcher and comes out with the most batshit ideas. I was over at his house like a year ago when he was talking about visiting Stockholm. He claimed there were areas of the city he was warned not to go to. His wife sideeyed him.

I am fine with Biden saying he wants to appoint a black woman to SCOTUS. Our highest court has traditionally been the preserve of white men. Wanting to make it a little more representative is a good thing. He’s telling a significant group of Americans who have always been underrepresented that they deserve a seat at the table. It may be hard to understand that if you’re not part of one of those groups.

Deep Space Nine was at its best when it was addressing issues of class and race. Avery Brooks clearly cared about those episodes a lot, and you can see his fingerprints all over them. It’s great stuff. Far Beyond the Stars is such a great episode. It’s a concept that could have come off silly, but everyone buys into the concept and it works.

conservatives stop comparing everything to the holocaust please. She’s trying to build a brand based on making liberals mad. It’s sad that this is a legitimate business plan these days.

Star Trek has really struggled to create new alien species since TOS. The only ones that landed, imo, were the Jem’Hadar, the Borg, and the Vorta. The Ferengi eventually did, but it took DS9 to salvage them. I mean look at this dumb shit.

https://twitter.com/dukakis_poster/status/1482752004443320329

Hell you could do one of these with Pete alone.

The way we talk to kids about weight and food can have lasting effects. This is me in 2nd grade. I was chubby, but by no means obese. My mom was, and is, a ball of anxiety so she took me to doctor after doctor trying to figure out why I was so fat. They all told her roughly the same thing: He’s fine, stop worrying about it. She didn’t stop worrying. It was clear to me something was wrong with me and I stated becoming more insecure. Then the diets started. First she cut all sugar out of my diet, then most of the fat.

*cracks knuckles* The guy who ran the first company I worked for started getting increasingly paranoid. This led to him living out of hotels and moving every few days. His assistant, a Mexican actor, sent me a message to come to a posh hotel and bring equipment with me.

https://twitter.com/amythicwitch/status/1471487413813919746

He requested a new laptop and an expensive digital camera. I showed up to set everything up and when I arrived he was strutting around the news in a bathrobe with his dick and balls just flipping around while he gesticulated and explained he had changed the world.

It's so weird to me that companies respond to sexual harassment so often by trying to silence accusers and protect offenders. Ostensibly they do this to protect the company, which is baffling because the best way to protect the company is to take accusations seriously. If one of your employees is sexually harassing other employees, they're a threat to your company in so many ways. You could face a PR nightmare, it poisons your work culture, it could lead to massive penalties. Why not just nip the problem the bud? Utterly baffling.

the mother thinks the father bought the gifts, the father thinks the mother bought the gifts, it turns into a perpetual argument that just increases the already present emotional distance between them until they're just going through the motions.

https://twitter.com/tfeatherstoneuk/status/1470887986158084101

while their child is going crazy running around the house with his new favorite toy, they've locked eyes over their coffee and can't stop thinking about what a mistake getting married and having kids was, ultimately they begin to resent their child too.

I'm selling nice folding chairs, new in plastic, that retail for $45. A guy just offered me $25 for 9 of them. Seriously what is wrong with all these idiots?