An apt day to remember that Dolly Parton once recorded a cover of Stairway to Heaven - and, in defiance of every moral law in the universe, she absolutely owned it.
To everyone so eager to cancel someone for a tattoo they got at age 22, a drunk text, a selfie they took in the middle of a mental health crisis:
Show us your laptop.
Show us your iCloud.
Open your entire digital life to your worst enemy. No context. No filter. No explanation.
You wonโt.
You wonโt because you know what I know. Any one of us, frozen at our worst moment, photographed in our lowest hour, looks like a monster. Looks like a stranger. Looks like someone who deserves to be cast out.
That is not who we are.
My mom and baby sister were killed in a car accident when I was just a kid. Cancer took my brother Beau, my best friend and my rock. I battled alcoholism. I battled addiction. I chose the cowardโs way out more times than I can count.
For years I believed the defining chapters of my life were written by tragedy, loss, and shame.
I no longer believe that.
Pain can shape us. Loss can humble us. Failures can leave scars that never fully fade. But none of them have the authority to define us.
And it sure as hell ainโt the critic that counts.
That authority belongs to us alone-the person in the arena.
Every setback presents a choice. Play the victim, or cut the bullshit and take ownership for who we become next.
Life does not determine our character. It reveals it.
Again and again we are asked the same question. When shit happens, what next?
We are not defined by what happened to us. We are not defined by the worst photo, the worst text, the worst tattoo, the worst night. We are defined by the person we choose to become. And by the courage to choose that person, every single day.
So before you reach for the gavel - show us your laptop.
You wonโt.
The whole world saw mine. And I am still here. Still becoming. Still choosing. Still standing.
That is the only definition that matters.
Multibillionaire Ken Griffin just gave $2,500,000 to Susan Collinsโs super PAC (after she voted four times to cut his taxes).
I look forward to raising Ken Griffinโs taxes, and banning him, and all billionaires, from buying elections.
We're in a weird era where a guy gets publicly shamed for running his sprinklers on a Tuesday, while a data center the size of a Costco quietly drains a reservoir so AI can generate a picture of your cat as a medieval knight. And the data center gets a tax incentive for it.
If capitalism is so great, why do corporations need so many tax breaks, subsidies, exemptions, grants, legal protections, bailouts, and trade protections?
When citizens need these things, why is it socialism?
This might sound pessimistic, but Iโve always wondered why no billionaire has single-handedly funded the halting or reversal of climate change purely for the narcissistic thrill of being able to say they literally saved humanity.
This is what local accountability looks like:
In Festus, Missouri, a town of about 14,000 people, the city council quietly approved a $6 billion Ai data center to be built on 360 acres just north of Highway 67.
Residents say they were never properly heard. Meetings were held in private. Documents were released too late. A week after the approval, the town held a regular election. Voter turnout jumped 129 percent.
Every single council member who had voted yes lost in a landslide. A 70-year-old first-time candidate beat an 8-year incumbent by 40 percentage points.
Now a recall petition is circulating to remove the mayor as well. The lawsuit against the city is already filed.
Has your local government ever been held accountable like this? ๐ฅ
Trump is crashing the economy
so he and his billionaire friends
can buy up everything we own
for pennies on the dollar. We are
experiencing the largest wealth
transfer in American history.
WE ARE BEING ROBBED BLIND.
Strange how Kash Patel and Todd Blanche can look at seashells on a beach and decided to dig further but see emails with grown men discussing raping kids and decided that there's nothing there.
So, @joerogan probably wonโt see this post thatโs going viral on Facebook. Itโs too long to copy & paste, & it took way more than 4 screenshots
But I think itโs essential reading for everyone, because ALL of the lying MAGA Influencers need to face legal consequences /1