jbedson²

Real Estate Photog. Technology Aficionado. Perpetually in search of the perfect breakfast burrito.

[jbedson² @jbedsonjr]

@BillSimmons @kirkgoldsberry @HousefromDC @TheCousinSal @AnthonyDabbundo Hey, @BillSimmons, fix the pronunciation dyslexia. It’s Robert (ORR-ee) Horry. The “H” is silent.

[jbedson² @jbedsonjr]

@AltitudeTV @nuggets Weak sauce, @AltitudeTV 👎

[Liz Munsterteiger @lzmunsterteiger]

This was not our plan.
The kids are all graduating within the next four years. We were going to get an RV. I wanted an Airstream, but I wasn’t sure if the interior would be tall enough for him. I love home improvement projects, so I was going to buy an old one and remodel it. I was going to make a podcast studio in it for him.
We were going to travel. I-5 along the West Coast was first on the list. We both loved the ocean so much. We decided we’d go to every state we hadn’t been to yet...but we’d also go out of our way to drive around Nebraska. We’d go to tailgates at CU. I would install a griddle and make muenster grilled cheese sandwiches for everyone, on sourdough, his favorite, while he covered the game.
He said that even after he retired, he still wanted to interview recruits. He looked forward to not having the daily hustle of getting content up, but he knew in his heart that he would never be able to leave sports. We were going to travel to high schools and go to games. He loved talking to high school coaches, parents, and especially young athletes. I was going to take pictures and videos. We were going to find the athletes who were off the radar, the ones in smaller markets, and give them the spotlight they deserved.
The future now looks so different. It is devastatingly sad, but it is not bleak. Somehow, it never has been. The stories, the pictures, the memories, and the outpouring of love have brought us hope in moments when it feels like my chest is collapsing.
I am glad we didn’t wait until “tomorrow” to fully live life together. I had 3,216 days with him, and we lived life in those days.
We traveled. Even though he deeply loved the Celtics his whole life, he had never been to the Garden. For his 40th birthday, I surprised him with a trip to Boston. A few years later, he surprised me with a trip to my number one bucket list destination, Lisbon.
Starting in 2018, I tried to go to one away game with him every year. I got to accompany him to Washington, Minnesota, Utah, TCU, San Antonio, Nebraska, and West Virginia, and twice to Las Vegas for Media Days. All but one of those games, we lost. I was bummed that my pictures kind of fell to the wayside because most people wouldn’t want to remember those games. But we always said the trips were amazing, aside from the football.
Going to New York to cover the Heisman ceremony was one of his favorite experiences. He was awestruck that he had the opportunity to do that, and I was able to go with him.
He’d go on Yelp and find the best places to eat. Nothing under 4.3 stars, unless there was no other option. We’d finish every single trip with a food ranking. He loved a list and a ranking. He’d find out if there was an art museum for us to go to. That was never something he would have done on his own, but he knew I wanted to. He never rushed me. We’d both go at our own pace, and I was always slower. He would be waiting for me at the end of the floor, on his phone. Texting recruits. Sending a newsletter. Calling a coach. I’d walk over, he’d look up and smile, turn his phone off immediately, and we’d go to the next floor.
Sometimes life would allow us to go on a spontaneous trip, and we did. When they announced that Kansas was playing in the first round of the tournament in Salt Lake City, he said, “You know, I don’t have anything big coming up and the kids aren’t here that weekend… we could actually drive there.”
And we did.
He went with me on a work trip to South Dakota because he hadn’t been there before. I ended up having to drive because that was the week Mel Tucker left. He was on his phone and computer most of the trip, but he put it away so we could go to Mount Rushmore and see all the places from North by Northwest. He loved Hitchcock and old movies.
We drove out to Lawrence, Kansas, to watch a KU basketball game almost every year. I am the Jayhawk, but he appreciated the history and the legacy, and he became a fan too. He loved that I loved sports. In October last year, he spontaneously said maybe we should go to Late Night in the Phog. So we did.
Sometimes we’d just go to an Airbnb in Boulder after a game instead of going home, just so we could experience something new. Or we’d take a weekend to stay in Golden with the kids.
I wanted more days. I wanted more years. But I am so thankful we didn’t wait for the “right” time to enjoy life together. We experienced life together to the fullest, every single one of those days we had.
Please take the trip. Treat yourself to really, really great food. Go to a hotel in your own city. Find somewhere that shows old movies. Go to a museum that maybe isn’t something you would normally seek out. Make time with your friends and family. Tell people you love them often, to the point of too much. Hug them.
We are not promised tomorrow, but we do have today.

[jbedson² @jbedsonjr]

@cmwilliams75 @VicLombardi @AltitudeTV I don’t think they have the coach either.

[James Tate @JamesTate121]

Very well written essay on the MAGA voter. This is what we are up against.

Sam is 61 years old and lives in a town where the Applebee’s closed in 2014 and people still mention it like it was a natural disaster. The old factory shut down years ago, but Sam keeps his faded employee badge in a kitchen drawer because he considers it proof that America peaked sometime around 1987, right between the release of Top Gun and the invention of low-flow toilets. He firmly believes the country began collapsing the moment they stopped letting people smoke in restaurants and started putting kale in things.

He wakes up every morning at 5:12 a.m., not because he has anywhere to be, but because decades of shift work, untreated sleep apnea, and permanent low-grade outrage have hardwired his body into a permanent state of agitation. He shuffles into the kitchen wearing camouflage pajama pants and a T-shirt that says “I Stand for the Flag” even though he has not stood up quickly without groaning since 2009. He pours himself coffee strong enough to power farm equipment and settles into his recliner to begin his daily ritual of becoming personally offended by things happening hundreds or thousands of miles away. Within half an hour, he is enraged about crime in Chicago, drag queens in Seattle, wind turbines in California, and a college professor in Vermont he has never heard of and never will again.

Sam spends most of his time marinating in an ecosystem of Facebook memes, talk radio, Fox News, chain emails, YouTube clips, and badly designed websites with names like Patriot Eagle Freedom Truth News. By noon, he has shared seven posts warning that America is under attack by socialists, immigrants, vegans, pronouns, electric stoves, and people who use the phrase “lived experience.” He believes every story because every story confirms what he already feels: that the country has been stolen from people like him and handed over to people he does not understand.

Sam is absolutely convinced he is one of the last remaining “real Americans,” despite living in a county entirely populated by people who also think they are the last remaining real Americans. He misses the America of his youth, which in his memory was a magical place where every man had a factory job, every woman made tuna casserole, every child respected authority, and nobody had tattoos, gluten allergies, or opinions about gender. He is nostalgic for a version of the country that mostly exists as a combination of old pickup truck commercials, Toby Keith songs, and stories his grandfather exaggerated after three beers.

His truck is the size of a military vehicle and has never once carried anything heavier than mulch and emotional baggage. His pickup truck is so large that small birds alter their migration patterns to avoid it. The truck has never hauled lumber, gravel, or equipment, but it does haul an enormous amount of political anxiety. The back is covered in bumper stickers warning that he is armed, angry, and deeply suspicious of the federal government, except for when it comes to Medicare, Social Security, highways, farm subsidies, police funding, veterans’ benefits, and keeping its hands off his lawn. He likes to tell people he is “not political,” which is impressive considering his entire personality has become an endless loop of cable news grievances.

He cannot attend a barbecue, church picnic, football game, or grandchild’s birthday party without eventually bringing up inflation, Hunter Biden, gas stoves, “the border,” or how nobody can say Merry Christmas anymore even though literally everyone still says Merry Christmas.

Then Trump arrived, descending from his golden escalator like a casino-themed prophet sent by God to sell steaks and grievance. Sam had finally found his perfect candidate: a billionaire from Manhattan with multiple mansions, gold-plated bathrooms, and a private jet, who somehow convinced Sam that he understood the pain of a man screaming at the self-checkout machine in Walmart.

Trump was loud, angry, theatrical, and constantly under investigation, which only made Sam admire him more. Every lawsuit, scandal, or indictment was not evidence of wrongdoing. It was proof that Trump was fighting the deep state, the media, the elites, the globalists, the FBI, the Democrats, the RINOs, and possibly the ghost of George Soros.

Every scandal, every lawsuit, every indictment, every accusation became proof that Trump was fighting the corrupt establishment on behalf of “real Americans” like Sam.

At this point, Sam does not support Trump because of policy details. He supports Trump because Trump has become the human embodiment of his anger, nostalgia, confusion, and Facebook feed. Trump says the world Sam remembers can come back, that the people Sam dislikes can be punished, and that all of Sam's frustrations are someone else’s fault.

To Sam, Trump is no longer just a politician. He is a lifestyle brand. He is a martyr, a warrior, a stand-up comedian, a victim, a patriot, and the lead singer of a traveling grievance festival. Sam owns at least three Trump hats, two Trump flags, a Trump coffee mug, a “Never Surrender” T-shirt, and a giant “Let’s Go Brandon” sign in the garage that he insists is “not political, just funny.”

For Sam, that is not politics. That is therapy. Trump is not just a candidate anymore; he is an emotional support billionaire.

He is a spray-tanned security blanket with a private jet. He is the gold-plated, fast-food-fueled mascot Sam clings to whenever the modern world feels confusing, threatening, or insufficiently patriotic.

Trump gives him a ready-made explanation for every disappointment in his life: it is not aging, bad luck, economic change, or his own choices; it is the immigrants, the liberals, the media, the globalists, the vegans, the people with pronouns, and whoever is ruining Christmas this week.

Supporting Trump lets Sam believe there is still someone out there fighting for him.

[jbedson² @jbedsonjr]

@ATRightMovies Sina ag

[jbedson² @jbedsonjr]

@ATRightMovies

[jbedson² @jbedsonjr]

@george__mack

[(RED) @RED]

This Super Bowl Sunday, we’re throwing it back to 2014, when @U2 and @bankofamerica debuted a new song and raised more than $3 million for the @globalfund in 24 hours.

[NBA @NBA]

Nikola Jokić just gave this fan a memory they will never forget 👋🥹

[Bill Madden @maddenifico]

"If it's brown, it goes down." South Park just ended Kristi Noem's career as the Nazi in charge of the DHS.

[Stephen King @StephenKing]

ICE is the American Gestapo.

[Gavin Newsom @GavinNewsom]

No new funding.

Kristi Noem must RESIGN.

Greg Bovino must be FIRED.

Suspend the LAWLESS mass deportation raids nationwide NOW — ICE is no longer just deporting dangerous criminals.

Send the border patrol back to the border.

End the militarization of ICE + the sick racial profiling.

End the perverse cash incentives that are bounties to perpetrate Trump’s cruel agenda.

Require thorough, real background checks for everyone, and 2+ years of training before even setting foot in the field.

INVESTIGATE and PROSECUTE every single federal agent who is breaking the law.

[Gavin Newsom @GavinNewsom]

KRISTI NOEM MUST RESIGN.

[jbedson² @jbedsonjr]

@TroyRenck Did Denver get shorted 15 yards on the previous kickoff on the touchback? I thought it was supposed to be the 35???

[jbedson² @jbedsonjr]

@AdamSchefter ✳️

[jbedson² @jbedsonjr]

@BillSimmons BS, BS.

[jbedson² @jbedsonjr]

@ATRightMovies

[jbedson² @jbedsonjr]

@diegopavia02 🖕🏻

[jbedson² @jbedsonjr]

@ATRightMovies