Dear Joe,
I wish I could sit down with you face to face and explain why so many of us were offended by the UFC fight on the South Lawn of the White House.
For me, it had nothing to do with the UFC or who showed up for the fights. The brand you and Dana have built is a bona fide American success story. More power to you. As for the fighters, in my book, anyone brave enough to put it all on the line in the arena is remarkable to witness. Their dedication and discipline inspire me. I don’t understand anyone who can’t admire that.
And as for the people who attended, I, for one, love Shane Gillis. I think he’s hilarious and brilliant. It was a show. A once-in-a-lifetime spectacle. I can’t blame anyone for wanting to witness it firsthand.
My problem is that I believe some of our public spaces are sacred. And unlike many of the great powers that came before us, these American monuments belong to all of us. Not to whoever happens to hold power at the moment.
The White House does not belong to Donald Trump. It does not belong to any President. It belongs to the people. To treat it as Caesar treated the Colosseum is antithetical to everything our founding fathers fought for.
This is not Rome. Presidents are not emperors doling out bread and circuses for the peasants. The White House is the People’s House. This “celebration” could have happened in any stadium within a stone’s throw of the South Lawn. No one would have had an issue with it.
But that was obviously Donald Trump’s whole point. By holding the event on the South Lawn, what he was saying to the rest of us is:
“This is my house. I own it. I will do with it what I please. I’ll build a colosseum and have the gladiators fight under my gaze. I’ll tear down the East Wing. I’ll pave over the Rose Garden. I’ll cover everything in gold and marble. I’ll erase the names of all the men who came before me.”
The fights were an exhibition of imperial domination, not a celebration of our 250th anniversary as a democracy.
The White House is not Buckingham Palace. It is not the Palace of Versailles. It is not the Forbidden City of Beijing. It does not belong to an emperor, or a king, or a commissar.
The White House belongs to us. All of us. The person who sits behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office is nothing more than an honored guest. A temporary caretaker.
The President is our servant. Not our Caesar.
Respectfully, Hunter
P.S. Cage match between me and Don Jr.? Your call on the venue. Anywhere but the South Lawn.
As beautiful and deserving as this is, it’s also a blatant example of how easily the state department can intervene with these manufactured visa issues most of the global south teams have had to endure as intimidation tactics by this tiny dick administration
Teddy Roosevelt dedicated his life to using the power of the federal government to lift up his fellow man. He loved a good scrap — but he would have hated watching billionaires (and one trillionaire) throw a party on the people's lawn.
You reduce crime by eliminating poverty. The actual reason so called nice neighborhoods have lower crime rates is because people’s basic needs are being met. It is not because of police, alarm systems, or neighborhood associations. Poverty creates crime.
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.
Friendly reminder that on November 23rd, 2024, Jaxson Dart threw an interception vs Florida to seal the game, cried about it on the sideline, had the play overturned, then came back on the field with tears in his eyes to throw another one and cried some more
You retards fail to understand the Internet is an open platform. Putting age verification on VPNs serves nothing but a way to surveil and catalogue individuals who use these services to bypass your shit blocks. You don't give a fuck about kids or else you would focus on the parents handing devices to their kids with no oversignt.
People should bypass this by using no ID services like Mullvad so they never have to provide a piece of ID to even make an account. People should also consider using OSS platforms like Signal to bypass your attacks on encryption as well.
Fuck you and fuck the draconian world you want to build.
This guy is in a lot of legal trouble. If the slide blew (I don’t think it did) I hope Delta sues him, too.
You hear the Captain on the PA system. The pilots are not going to come out when people start acting this way. We are now locked down & assume there may be other threats; this could be a coordinated distraction to take control of the cockpit.
Any kind of disruption like this is taken very seriously & we default to safety mode. The police are going to meet the jet. Now, here is what you might need to know…
If the Flight Attendants ask for help, get up & help them. They are trained to defuse these situations as much as possible, but can only do so much. When you are seated, the Flight Attendants will look around for passengers that might be able to help if things get physical. Do NOT do this on your own initiative…wait for the FAs to ask, then follow their instructions. They know what equipment is on the jet & where to put these people. Our security departments spend a lot of time thinking about this stuff & giving us training for it.
As much as I’d love to come storming out of the cockpit with the crash axe in hand, the cockpit door will not be opened in these circumstances.
People really saying “just connect to the internet not a big deal” my brother in Christ that’s not the point. God forbid a natural disaster happens or you can’t pay your WiFi bill one month and just can’t play games you PAID for until you reconnect.
It doesn’t matter if you have internet, it’s a matter of principle. You shouldn’t be okay with PS arbitrarily taking away access to games you spent your hard earned money on. The more comfortable you get with this the worse it will get.
We’re frogs in the pot and they’re slowly raising the heat and some of yall aren’t noticing.