The Ones Who Walk Away From the Torment Nexus
thechrispaduan.bsky.social
The Ones Who Walk Away From the Torment Nexus
@thechrispaduan.bsky.social
Photographer, gamer, software engineer, deeply disappointed optimist. Tell the ones you love that you love them. Some day they'll be gone (or you will).

Also at:
Mastodon: http://sfba.social/@thechrispaduan
The Bird Place: same handle as here
Pinned
I never did an intro post, so here goes:
I am a software engineer by trade living in Silicon Valley. I tend to post about:
Geekery
Cats
Videogames
Movies
Music
The wonders of nature
Political nonsense
Absurdity in other forms
Reposted by The Ones Who Walk Away From the Torment Nexus
Being among the first interrogated and ultimately fired by DOGE, I certainly felt we were facing the business end of a right-wing conspiracy theory 🧵
DOGE was not a money-saving effort. It was an effort to chase down and prove right-wing conspiracy theories. They went after USAID to prove conspiracy theories about foreign aid. Then they went after SSA to, again, pursue conspiracy theories about Dems paying "illegals" to vote. 1/2
All DOGE accomplished was purging critical government staff, handing private data to outsiders, and sentencing thousands in developing countries to death by gutting USAID.

I don’t say this lightly: if there were any justice in this world, the people responsible for this devastation would be in jail
November 26, 2025 at 2:31 AM
Reposted by The Ones Who Walk Away From the Torment Nexus
Skokie takes a stand.
November 26, 2025 at 2:16 AM
Are the soldiers in this gedankenexperiment about to storm the beaches at Cape Cod?
this is their understanding of sedition in the context of lawful/unlawful orders
November 26, 2025 at 12:43 AM
One Million percent!!!
Buckaroo Banzai Vs. The World Crime League
If you were a despotic president, what movie would you force Hollywood to make? I want to see Quentin's Star Trek movie or maybe Kill Bill Vol 3.
November 26, 2025 at 12:41 AM
Reposted by The Ones Who Walk Away From the Torment Nexus
Holy crap! TIL that mendicament is not a made up that sounds retrofuturistic, but in fact, an actual old fashioned word! 🤯
November 25, 2025 at 10:33 PM
Let’s not forget all the people who will die/have died.
In the end, DOGE will have cost us $135 billion to rehire fired workers, $21.7 billion in waste, a potential loss of more than $500 billion in tax revenue over the next 10 years and a loss of $10 billion in economic activity with the loss of programs that previously returned billions to taxpayers.
November 25, 2025 at 10:27 PM
Tsk, tsk they’ve already broken the first rule of Fight Club.
Wow — Senators Van Hollen, Smith, Murphy, Sanders, Warren, Markey, Merkley, Heinrich have created an official internal "Fight Club."

They're challenging Schumer & Gillibrand's leadership, arguing the party is using an old, corporate-friendly playbook insufficient to take on Trump or win elections.
Chuck Schumer Faces Pushback From a ‘Fight Club’ of Senate Democrats
www.nytimes.com
November 25, 2025 at 10:23 PM
Reposted by The Ones Who Walk Away From the Torment Nexus
when trying on pants, do this in the store. then tell the sales associate "the menswear guy told me to do this."

IG mr.funkys0ul
November 25, 2025 at 10:17 AM
Reposted by The Ones Who Walk Away From the Torment Nexus
"Who Moved My Cheese" is a book about people who tell their saddest stories to a wheel of cheddar, to find out who can provoke the most overwhelming emotional reaction
November 24, 2025 at 7:08 PM
Reposted by The Ones Who Walk Away From the Torment Nexus
There are 50,000 food insecure children in Maine and 2 trans athletes. Every single candidate running for office who can drum up concern about the latter but has nothing to say about the former is telling on themselves. They don’t care about children. Only power. And they’ll hurt kids for it.
25 Nov 2025 @rikiwilchins.bsky.social -- In unusual move, Sen Susan Collins (R-ME) signs petition for referendum on the 2026 ballot that would bar trans students from sports teams, locker-rooms and bathrooms. She's in a hotly contested election & this is pbly one way to increase Rep turnout.
Sen. Collins signs Maine petition for initiative to restrict transgender rights
The proposed referendum aims to enforce President Donald Trump’s <a href="https://themainemonitor.org/maine-title-ix-battle-national-consequences/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">stance on ...
www.pressherald.com
November 25, 2025 at 11:24 AM
Reposted by The Ones Who Walk Away From the Torment Nexus
just got laid off. if you're looking for an experienced lead gen marketer (SEA), remote or in Frankfurt area, hmu
November 25, 2025 at 11:10 AM
Reposted by The Ones Who Walk Away From the Torment Nexus
November 25, 2025 at 12:52 PM
Reposted by The Ones Who Walk Away From the Torment Nexus
Blinkers exist. Use them. This isn’t improv.
November 25, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Reposted by The Ones Who Walk Away From the Torment Nexus
This is Shadow May, a gorgeous girl I photographed at her foster home today. She is so sweet and available for adoption in Burlington, VT! www.hsccvt.org/Cats#sl_embe...
November 10, 2025 at 12:16 AM
Reposted by The Ones Who Walk Away From the Torment Nexus
It is the single largest donation Knight has made to an Oregon candidate or political action committee.
Nike co-founder Phil Knight makes record-setting donation to help elect Republicans
It is the single largest donation Knight has made to an Oregon candidate or political action committee.
www.oregonlive.com
November 25, 2025 at 1:15 AM
We choose violence.
November 25, 2025 at 2:46 AM
Reposted by The Ones Who Walk Away From the Torment Nexus
You know, I'm not sure I ever really read the Pond Rules at our local nature preserve all that closely before
November 25, 2025 at 1:24 AM
Reposted by The Ones Who Walk Away From the Torment Nexus
Does anyone in Baltimore need (or could use) a 20 lb turkey? Because reasons, we have acquired one, and while we can come up with uses for it, it's A Problem for my allergy issues and if someone needs it more, Sarah is happy to deliver anywhere in Baltimore
November 24, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Can’t wait to see to the American version after the current regime leaves.
Still reeling from the Stanford report on Brexit. Reduced GDP by up to 8% and investment by as much as 18%. The UK Treasury would have £40 billion more each year if Britain had remained in the EU. Devastating self-immolation.
The Economic Impact of Brexit
Other
siepr.stanford.edu
November 24, 2025 at 11:25 PM
Reposted by The Ones Who Walk Away From the Torment Nexus
If you have the ability to help, we do have a donation page on @rocketcatrescue.bsky.social ‘s website. Thank you!!
November 24, 2025 at 7:51 PM
I had severe cognitive dissonance because the Cox is credited for the voice, but whoever did the motion capture looks/performs just like Robert Pattison to my eyes.
ign.com IGN @ign.com · 2d
Charlie Cox has said that any awards he might win for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 should really be given to his character's French motion capture artist instead. https://bit.ly/4od7QV6
November 24, 2025 at 10:14 PM
Reposted by The Ones Who Walk Away From the Torment Nexus
As Rockstar employees are typically unable to access work emails outside of the office--and because the Slack policy changes were announced after 5PM--union members still in the office shared text from two internal emails on the Discord, so they could discuss what was happening together.
November 24, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Reposted by The Ones Who Walk Away From the Torment Nexus
Terumaru, a bright young lightbulb and the mascot of the Tokyu Denki electric company, trapped in a door yesterday:
November 23, 2025 at 11:29 PM
Reposted by The Ones Who Walk Away From the Torment Nexus
A banger of a Sunday sermon from the menswear guy.
A friend who teaches theology shared with me a post about CS Lewis's Mere Christianity, which discusses foundational Christian logic across denominations. It reminded me of Dale's tweet below, and I wanted to share some thoughts here regarding modesty and respectability, which are often hot topics.
November 24, 2025 at 12:50 AM
Reposted by The Ones Who Walk Away From the Torment Nexus
Magnificent Mountains form a nice chain of sky islands in northern Austria and Thailand
November 23, 2025 at 8:35 AM