tom brandt
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twbrandt.net
tom brandt
@twbrandt.net
PC(USA). Retired software engineer. UMich grad. He/him. Jackal (IYKYK). Dearborn, MI 🏳️‍🌈

“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.” — Anne Lamott

https://twbrandt.net/about/
Just because you have a ridiculously oversized 4-wheel drive pickup doesn’t mean you can drive like a jackass on snowy slippery roads and think everything will be OK.
January 1, 2026 at 5:46 AM
Happy New Year everyone! I hope it will be much better than the previous one!
January 1, 2026 at 5:46 AM
Reposted by tom brandt
Arizona is raising the minimum wage 45 cents or so tomorrow and there is a 60 something pizza shop owner complaining about it and once again if you can not pay your employees minimum wage you don't have a business you have a hobby that requires others to subsidize it with their labor.
January 1, 2026 at 12:08 AM
This horrible year is almost over.
January 1, 2026 at 12:13 AM
Reposted by tom brandt
The final Calvin and Hobbes, which appeared in papers 30 years ago today.
December 31, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Reposted by tom brandt
BREAKING NEWS: Actual facts appear for the first time on "Truth" Social.
December 30, 2025 at 7:47 PM
Reposted by tom brandt
This is one of the most beautiful things I have witnessed, the craft here is impeccable.
August 13, 2025 at 6:06 AM
Might as well
December 30, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Reposted by tom brandt
Costconomics vs Walmartnomics in a nutshell. Here’s why having a Costco in a community boosts the entire community, including nearby businesses, while Walmart destroys whole towns and leaves people leaning on social safety nets.

And yes, it’s about as simple as you think. …
December 30, 2025 at 3:48 AM
Reposted by tom brandt
“.. fame and exceptionalism can be very, very destructive. .. I think it’s good to make your own bed, it’s good to go do your shopping, to have your feet on the ground, to know that you’re a human being as well. The other stuff is projection.”

- Annie Lennox, born today in 1954 💕
December 26, 2025 at 12:56 AM
It is December 28, 2025, and it is 58F in Dearborn, Michigan.

Good thing climate change is a hoax.
December 29, 2025 at 1:54 AM
Just made Vivaldi the default browser on my macbook. We'll see how it goes.
December 28, 2025 at 8:42 PM
It was a Tuesday in 1981 when the San Francisco police kicked in the door.

Inside the small apartment, they expected to find a hardened criminal. They expected a drug kingpin. They expected resistance.

Instead, they found a 57-year-old waitress in an apron.
rainey 🌻 (@raineyday@beige.party)
Attached: 1 image It was a Tuesday in 1981 when the San Francisco police kicked in the door. Inside the small apartment, they expected to find a hardened criminal. They expected a drug kingpin. They...
beige.party
December 28, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Reposted by tom brandt
We can live without billionaires but billionaires cannot live without us, in the same way that a body can live without cancer, but cancer cannot live without a body.
December 27, 2025 at 11:27 PM
seriously, did I just see a Scientology ad on the Hou/LA broadcast???
December 27, 2025 at 11:15 PM
My mom’s side of the family arrived in the thirteen colonies before the American revolution. Does that make me a “heritage American”?

Whatever. Someone who was naturalized yesterday is just as American as I.
December 27, 2025 at 9:51 PM
Reposted by tom brandt
Watched the volleyball scene from Top Gun with my kids.

Imagine watching that and thinking America needed gays in the military.
December 27, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Reposted by tom brandt
57 years ago today, Apollo 8 crew member Bill Anders took his iconic photo of the Earth rising over the Moon. It is still a fantastic image. Here's a little video of how it was done:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHbF...
Earthrise in 4K
YouTube video by NASA Goddard
www.youtube.com
December 24, 2025 at 11:07 PM
Well, this sucks. I thought well of Bollinger in the past. No longer.

Follow the links in the linked blog for the full story.
December 26, 2025 at 6:47 PM
Sometimes it takes someone who isn’t a Christian to explain Christianity to those of us who are. 🧵
I am not a Christian of course but like all Americans I have spent my life marinating in Christian mythography, and so around this time of year I have a lot of thoughts about the Nativity and the part where the innkeeper says there's no room in the inn.
December 25, 2025 at 7:17 PM
Merry Christmas, everyone!
CHANTICLEER: Silent Night
YouTube video by Chanticleer
youtu.be
December 25, 2025 at 4:57 PM
Reposted by tom brandt
Pope Leo said in a Christmas Eve sermon that the story of Jesus being born in a stable because there was no room at an inn should remind Christians that refusing to help the poor and strangers today is tantamount to rejecting God himself. For @reuters.com
Pope Leo, on Christmas Eve, says denying help to poor is rejecting God
Pope Leo said in a Christmas Eve sermon on Wednesday that the story of Jesus being born in a stable because there was no room at an inn should remind Christians that refusing to help the poor and stra...
www.reuters.com
December 24, 2025 at 9:56 PM
A Christmas Carroll
December 24, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Reposted by tom brandt
This is a fun post from a public transit advocate arguing for the Polar Express to Detroit. (Really, he's suggesting a Grand Rapids to Lansing to Detroit rail route.) thetransitguy.substack.com/p/what-if-th...
What if the Polar Express went to Detroit?
A serious case for Michigan’s most obvious rail line
thetransitguy.substack.com
December 24, 2025 at 1:59 AM