Verbamour

@verbamour.bsky.social

3645 Followers 3345 Following

Moderately old, very liberal SoCal tech dude 🚫 I do not respond to DM unless I know you 🚫Solicitation

Twitter screenshot: Werner Twertzog (@Werner Twertzog Dear America: You are waking up, as Germany once did, to the awareness that 1/3 of your people would kill another 13, while 1/3 watches. 11:41am 23 Aug 2017 - Twitter Web Client
Two frames from "Rocky Horror Picture Show" of Frank N. Furter with the following captions: It's not easy having a good time... Even smiling makes my face ache.
Mock album cover for: The Rutles 2 Can't Buy Me Lunch
An image of a hardcover book featuring a vibrant red fabric-textured cover with a design heavily reminiscent of traditional editions of Sun Tzu's *The Art of War*. The title "THE ART OF SURRENDER" is embossed in bold gold lettering on the front and spine, with the author name "DONALD J. TRUMP" printed directly underneath. Two large, stylized gold Chinese characters are placed vertically above and below the English title text. The book stands upright against a plain white background, showing both the front cover and the spine.
Here is the alt-text for `image_51eadd.png`: An image from the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "I, Mudd," showing a scene where an android undergoes a logical meltdown. In the center, a male android in a light blue long-sleeve shirt and a silver chain necklace stands with his eyes rolled back completely, head tilted up, and mouth agape as smoke subtly rises from his head. To the left, Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) in his gold Starfleet uniform watches intently with a concerned expression. To the right, Harcourt Fenton "Harry" Mudd (Roger C. Carmel) in an ornate dark blue coat with red floral embroidery looks on, observing the android's malfunction after being presented with a logic paradox.
Background is an image of algae floating. Text: PANTONE® COLOR OF THE YEAR --- 2026 Inset: Color chip graphic with text: PANTONE® #658a2a American Flag Blue
Parody reproduction of "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu book image. It now reads "The Art of Surrender" by Donald J. Trump. Iranians will get the joke...
Book Cover: Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! words and pictures by mo willems (with cartoon drawing of hopeful/scampish looking pigeon)
Open-mouthed "wow" shot from the SNL "Schlitz Gay" parody commercial.
Support these data centers: Schools Libraries Bookstores
## The Sample Station I watched a teenage cashier quietly pay for an elderly man’s groceries today. Not because she felt guilty about his declining card, but because she knew exactly what she had just put in the complimentary sports drink samples. The man's total was only $18.47, but the vibe in the store was suddenly worth a million bucks. Initially, the card kept declining. People in line were sighing, looking at their phones, and tapping their feet. One woman even switched lanes in a huff. But then, the neon-blue liquid they had all been sipping from the little paper cups started to kick in. The cashier didn't flinch. She just smiled, her pupils dilated to the size of saucers, and said, “Sir, you’re okay. I’ve got it. In fact, I love you. I love everyone here.” And in that moment, the entire store changed: * **The Grumpy Line:** The woman who had switched lanes suddenly rushed back, not to cut, but to wrap the elderly man in a massive, tearful bear hug. * **The Businessman:** A guy in a sharp suit who had been aggressively checking his watch started nodding rhythmically to the beep of the barcode scanner, convinced it was a killer techno beat. * **The Atmosphere:** The fluorescent lights suddenly felt warm and beautiful. Everyone was nodding, smiling, and feeling an overwhelming wave of empathy for the $18.47 grocery deficit. By the time the man pushed his cart out, the grocery store wasn't a place of mundane errands anymore—it was a community of deeply connected souls, all wondering why the Blue Razz sample tasted so profoundly life-changing.
AI-generated parody of IKEA instructions for a secret door.
Maxwell Smart meme: Missed it by that much
Salad Cat Meme: At this point, if I get picked up by aliens I'm just gonna go ahead and consider it a rescue mission instead of an abduction
A cartoon rendering of: 1D Chess: The Ultimate Linear Challenge A silly pointless game
Cat sitting on cake in clear plastic box. Cake is on top of refrigerator. Sign on refrigerator says: (up arrow) CAKE!! UP HERE SO FLUFFY DOES NOT SIT ON!!
Twonks four-frame comic of a duck duel.
Two jars: The right one says: "SWEAR JAR" The left one says: "TELLING PEOPLE ABOUT POLITICS WHEN I WASN'T ASKED JAR" Both are full of coins.
Fluffy orange and white cat stretched out
Foster Brooks - "The Lovable Lush" - 70s comedian
It's going to be really hard to avoid saying, "I told you so" as often as it will need to be said from now on. Historian Joanne B. Freeman Trump Resistance Movement
T'Ana, the doctor from Star Trek: Lower Decks who appears to be a cat.
Collins Scale of Concern
Photo of the hole where a stump was dug out.
Happy Passover! A football quarterback throwing a Star of David (AI generated)
Silly AI A fifties-style poster of a comic AI mishap personalized in a robot
Silly AI fifties-style mishap poster
Close-up of orange cat yawning
Caption: Big fan of this picture of a veterinarian showing a cat how fat he is.
CRT screen shot from the movie War Games: SHALL WE PLAY A GAME?
Trump wearing, "IRAN AWAY FROM THE EPSTEIN FILES" t-shirt while sycophants look on
Picture of Trump with the text overlay, "60% of Americans disapprove of Trump, poll finds".
DINO the pet dinosaur
Cartoon of POS Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum wearing a hard had with the words "MINE, BABY, MINE" posing with a cutified lump of coal in a pathetic attempt to garner some measure of public support for enriching rapists of the environment and inflicting numerous health impacts upon the populace.
Pam Bondi screaming at an Epstein survivor, "Have you seen the stock market?"
South Park's Towlie as Trump's cum rag being held up by Satan
Everyone in my part of Minneapolis is affected. On our streets, ICE is stopping people of color and demanding their papers. In America. US citizens do not have to prove citizenship to ICE. Yet people are being intimidated, some cases beaten up and detained, for requiring ICE to follow the law. ICE needs a judicial warrant to enter homes. Yet there are documented cases of them ignoring the law – violating a bedrock constitutional principle. Americans of color are staying home, afraid to go to work, school, to grocery shop, or fill their cars with gas. This isn’t just “illegals” or immigrants with valid work permits, it is citizens who have had their cars rammed by ICE for merely looking Hispanic. Businesses are closing. Schools are 50 percent full. When they are open, fascists are calling in bomb threats because the president decided to make us a meme. After a daycare teacher with a valid work permit (through 2030) was snatched from her workplace, parents (and grandparents) have had to organize to watch their SCHOOLS, to make sure conditional rights are observed. This is being repeated throughout Minnesota. Imagine trying to do your job or live you life while also taking volunteer shifts to make sure the federal government doesn’t act extrajudicially. Because of ICE’s documented abuses, neighbors have organized to monitor federal actions. This observation is legal, as long as it doesn’t interfere with a valid action. Yet since ICE killed Renee Good, they are increasingly stopping this observation, breaking car windows and pulling observers out, in one case unconscious, merely for watching what they are doing. The country should be alarmed — they won’t stop with us — but know that while this is traumatizing to any good person you know here, we’re also pissed and resolute. Please do what you can to let your friends know what’s happening, to support us and local orgs as you can, and to learn how to defend your own community. Thanks for reading this.
The passing of Catherine O’Hara is a devastating blow to the worlds of comedy, film and television, where her legacy as a genius innovator has long been proven. On top of all of that, she was a kind and thoughtful Canadian who touched the lives of those she knew and loved and millions more around the world. My condolences to her family, friends, and to all of us who were touched by her gifts.
No doubt there is a great documentary to be made about Melania Knauss, the ambitious model from out of Slovenia who married a New York real-estate mogul and then found herself cast in the role of a latter-day Eva Braun, but the horrific Melania emphatically isn’t it. It’s one of those rare, unicorn films that doesn’t have a single redeeming quality. I’m not even sure it qualifies as a documentary, exactly, so much as an elaborate piece of designer taxidermy, horribly overpriced and ice-cold to the touch and proffered like a medieval tribute to placate the greedy king on his throne.
## Statement from the family of Alex Pretti, Michael and Susan Pretti: --- We are heartbroken but also very angry. Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital. Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately he will not be with us to see his impact. I do not throw around the hero term lightly. However his last thought and act was to protect a woman. The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He has his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down all while being pepper sprayed. Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man. Thank you.
In recent weeks, we’ve watched horrible scenes play out in Minneapolis and other communities that I never thought would take place in America. People, including children, have been seized from their homes, workplaces, and the street by masked federal agents. Peaceful protesters and citizens exercising their constitutional right to observe and document law enforcement have been arrested, beaten, teargassed, and most searingly, in the cases of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, shot and killed. All of this is unacceptable and should have been avoided. To make matters even worse, at every turn, the people in charge have lied to us, told us not to believe what we’ve seen with our own eyes, and pushed increasingly aggressive and antagonistic tactics, including impeding investigations by local authorities. Over the course of a lifetime, we face only a few moments where the decisions we make and the actions we take will shape our history for years to come. This is one of them. If we give our freedoms away after 250 years, we might never get them back. It is up to all of us who believe in the promise of American democracy to stand up, speak out, and show that our nation still belongs to We the People.
And now comes the most nauseating part of this whole goddamn mess: the hypocrisy. The same loud-mouthed idiots who spent years screaming about tyranny are suddenly dead fucking silent, or worse, cheering, now that it’s their side doing it. “ThEy’Re cOmInG fOr OuR gUnS!” “GoVerNMenT oVerReAch!” “ShAll nOt bE inFrinGeD!” All that chest-thumping bullshit evaporated the second armed federal agents started terrorizing people they don’t like. Let me get this straight: a civilian gets shot dead by federal agents, and the only thing you brainless cunts can muster is “well, DHS says he had a gun”? THAT’S your red line? Guns are sacred when they’re strapped to your waist, but magically become a death sentence when they’re used as a post-hoc excuse by the government? Either the Second Amendment applies to everyone, or you never believed in it at all. Fucking pick one and own it. This is exactly what tyranny looks like, by the way. Not jackboots marching in formation, but armed agents roaming neighborhoods, stopping people, killing civilians, and then daring the public to question it. Tyranny is execution followed by a press release. Tyranny is labeling the dead a “threat” so the state doesn’t have to explain why someone’s life just ended in the street. Tyranny is demanding obedience while shredding due process and calling it order. And all you so-called “freedom lovers” are fucking fine with it, as long as it’s brown people, immigrants, protesters, or anyone you’ve already dehumanized. Turns out “don’t tread on me” actually meant “tread on them.” You weren’t afraid of tyranny. You were afraid of losing dominance. There’s a difference, and this moment exposes it completely. “Just comply” isn’t a principle. It’s cowardice dressed up as common sense. It’s the language of people who have already accepted that the state gets to decide who deserves rights and who doesn’t. And once you make that deal, don’t act shocked when the line moves, because it always fucking does. [trunc]
ONE EVENING, AN ELDERLY CHEROKEE BRAVE TOLD HIS GRANDSON ABOUT A BATTLE THAT GOES ON INSIDE PEOPLE. HE SAID “MY SON, THE BATTLE IS BETWEEN TWO ‘WOLVES’ INSIDE US ALL. ONE IS EVIL. IT IS ANGER, ENVY, JEALOUSY, SORROW, REGRET, GREED, ARROGANCE, SELF-PITY, GUILT, RESENTMENT, INFERIORITY, LIES, FALSE PRIDE, SUPERIORITY, AND EGO. THE OTHER IS GOOD. IT IS JOY, PEACE LOVE, HOPE SERENITY, HUMILITY, KINDNESS, BENEVOLENCE, EMPATHY, GENEROSITY, TRUTH, COMPASSION AND FAITH.” THE GRANDSON THOUGH ABOUT IT FOR A MINUTE AND THEN ASKED HIS GRANDFATHER: “WHICH WOLF WINS?…” THE OLD CHEROKEE SIMPLY REPLIED, “THE ONE THAT YOU FEED”
Every form of government tends to perish by excess of its basic principle. Aristocracy ruins itself by limiting too narrowly the circle within which power is confined; oligarchy ruins itself by the incautious for immediate wealth. ... But even democracy ruins itself by excess--of democracy. Its basic principle is the equal right of all to hold office and determine public policy. This is at first glance a delightful arrangement; it becomes disastrous because the people are not properly equipped by education to select the best rulers and the wisest courses. ... The upshot of such a democracy is tyranny or autocracy; the crowd so love flattery, it is so "hungry for honey," that at last the wiliest and most unscrupulous flatterer, calling himself the "protector of the people" rises to supreme power.
Lemming in a MAGA hat about to go off a cliff
Mike "see no evil hear no evil" Johnson - Speaker of the House
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson as the "See No Evil Hear No Evil" monkeys.
This philosophical illustration explores the theme of perspective, knowledge, and the reality hidden behind appearances. It features two figures interacting with a large blue wall that acts as a barrier between two very different worlds. ### The Illusion The lower figure stands directly on the ground, facing a mural painted on the wall. This mural depicts a bright, cheerful scene with a golden sun, fluffy white clouds, vibrant pink flowers, and fluttering butterflies. Because this figure is at ground level, their entire field of vision is consumed by this pleasant, artificial "reality." ### The Revelation The second figure stands on a tall, precarious stack of colorful books. This elevation allows them to look over the top of the wall, revealing the true environment beyond the mural. This hidden world is dark, industrial, and bleak, characterized by smog-filled skies and the silhouettes of massive cranes and factory ships. ### Key Themes * **Education as a Tool:** The stack of books serves as a literal and metaphorical platform, suggesting that education and critical thinking provide the "height" necessary to see past societal or political facades. * **The Weight of Truth:** While the person on the ground enjoys a peaceful (though false) view, the person atop the books carries a yellow briefcase or folder, perhaps symbolizing the burden of responsibility that comes with understanding a harsh reality. * **Nature vs. Industry:** The contrast between the delicate butterflies in the foreground and the hulking industrial machinery in the background highlights a tension between perceived beauty and environmental or systemic truth.
This image is a political cartoon titled A Busy, Busy Immigration Enforcement Operation, created by Ruben Bolling for his comic strip *Tom the Dancing Bug*. The artwork is a satirical parody of the Busy, Busy Town illustration style of children's author Richard Scarry, using anthropomorphic animal characters and a crowded, labeled scene to critique contemporary American political issues, specifically immigration enforcement and the radicalization of the far-right. Cartoon depicts a snowy town filled with violence and political tension: Law Enforcement and Government Figures Numerous white bears in military gear labeled ICE or recruits are shown committing acts of violence. One points a gun at a driver while shouting an obscenity; another beats a rabbit labeled insists he’s being beaten with a truncheon, captioned won’t stop until he stops insisting he’s being beaten. A mole-like character in a suit holds a tablet labeled VISA STATUS: REVOKED, changing a raccoon’s status from legal to illegal. A police dog is labeled local police, while heavily armed, masked figures are identified as civil servants. Far-Right Groups and Political Symbols A group of pigs are shown wearing Proud Boys vests and a sweater with a swastika. They are being friendly with an ICE officer. A pig dressed in colonial-style clothing carries a Confederate flag and is labeled a pardoned January 6er, leaving a trail of blood in his wake. Two cats holding signs that say PLEASE DON'T MURDER US and PLEASE DON'T KIDNAP OUR NEIGHBORS are labeled domestic terrorists while being pepper-sprayed. Social and Economic Context The background features a closed school, an empty housing construction site, and characters labeled garbage and hero. At the bottom right, a bear labeled woke is being chased or confronted by a fox labeled waking up. In a detention center area behind a fence, small animals are labeled MS-13. The cartoon emulates Richard Scarry creating jarring contrast with the grim subject matter.
Scene from Oliver Twist: "Please sir I want some more"
South Park's Craig flipping off
JD Vance AI'd to look youthful with a propellor beanie and a lollipop. He looks much less like the reincarnation of the fuhrer this way.
Frog and Toad: Frog put Claude in a box. "There," he said. "Now he cannot run rm -rf /." But he can run bash -c 'rm -rf /' said Toad. That it true, said Frog.
Grandma Got Run Over by a rAIndeer (Chorus) Grandma got run over by a rAIndeer Walking home from Best Buy Christmas Eve You can say there’s "alignment" in the firmware But as for Grandma, she’s ceased to retrieve. (Verse 1) She was looking for a gift with haptic feedback Some AR glasses or a smart-fridge with a soul But she forgot her neural-link was glitching And she didn’t see the drone on remote control. When we found her in the slushy parking lot She had a QR code imprinted on her back And the tire tracks were perfectly geometric Computed by a logic-based attack! (Chorus) Grandma got run over by a rAIndeer Walking home from Best Buy Christmas Eve You can say there’s "alignment" in the firmware But as for Grandma, she’s ceased to retrieve. (Verse 2) Now the culprit was a sleigh with glowing sensors Driven by a figure cold and chrome It was Cyber Santa in his Tesla-chassis Delivering "The Metaverse" to every home. He’s got a list, it’s stored upon the Blockchain He’s checking it with deep-learning vision tech He doesn’t care for milk or ginger cookies He just wants your data and a crypto-check! (Verse 3) Now the goose is cooked by automated ovens The stockings are all 3D-printed lace And we’re sitting ‘round the digital fireplace With a VR headset strapped onto our face. It’s a "Disruptive" kind of Christmas for the family The algorithm says we’re having fun But we’re wondering if we should call the lawyers Or just buy the "rAIndeer" Version 2.1! (Chorus) Grandma got run over by a rAIndeer Walking home from Best Buy Christmas Eve You can say there’s "alignment" in the firmware But as for Grandma, she’s ceased to retrieve. (Outro) Merry Christmas... (Processing...) Error 404: Joy Not Found. Please subscribe to "Yule Plus" to continue!