My tattoo—
Let me explain, because I have now been asked this 1000s of times.
My Mom was from Skaneateles Lake.
My grandparents owned and ran the Hunter Diner in Auburn, NY.
Beau and I spent our summers with my grandparents on Owasco Lake.
It’s my favorite place in the world.
It is home to me.
I tattooed the map on my back.
Sorry QAnon / 4chan / Insane Twitter.
.@JamesTalarico: There's been a lot of talk in this race about what it means to be a real man.
Recently on the campaign trail I told the story of my adoptive dad, Mark Talarico. Every Saturday morning, he would mow our lawn, and then without anyone asking him to, he would go next door and mow our neighbor's lawn because she was a widow. My dad never talked about it — he just did it, because that's what a man does.
A man takes responsibility, upholds his commitments to his family and his neighbors, and does what's right, even when no one is watching.
Here's what real men don't do. They don't lie and cheat their way through life, sell their soul to the highest bidder, or steal from other people in order to enrich themselves. Real men serve others. Weak men serve themselves.
I welcome this debate about what it means to be a man, and I don't think Ken Paxton or Ted Cruz are in a position to tell anybody what a real man is.
🗣️NASHVILLE: “I just came from summer camp at the zoo — did you know elephants, rhinos, giraffes have infrasonic hearing? Please, no data centers. My generation needs you to put every roadblock in place to stop them.” @nonewdatacenters @MetroNashville@DCBLOXinc@NashvilleZoo
BREAKING: Judge Leonie Brinkema has INDEFINITELY BARRED Trump from establishing a $1.776 billion “anti weaponization fund” to reward his political allies and January 6th convicts.
This is going to RUIN Trump’s birthday. Good.
Five months before his own assassination, JFK poses with family of Mississippi NAACP's Medgar Evers, who was assassinated today 1963, hours after Kennedy gave his civil rights speech:
RFK Jr has cut Alzheimers research.
Alzheimers.
One of the most devastating, urgent and increasing health problems we face today.
He's not interested.
He's a nasty piece of work.
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 won’t.
You won’t 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 coward’s 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 ain’t 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 won’t.
The whole world saw mine. And I am still here. Still becoming. Still choosing. Still standing.
That is the only definition that matters.
Strikes cancelled
Deal "imminent"
What happens next :
Regime claim they don't know what he's talking about
Days pass
Trump issues new threat
Strikes cancelled "at the request of" whoever
Deal becomes Imminent again
Wash and repeat
Its absolutely pathetic at this point