I turn 50 today. This is a message to my kids but I offer it to you in case any of it rings useful.
I was born in Sri Lanka in 1976 in a country that, at the time, was about to enter a decades long civil war. My father was able to get stationed at the Sri Lankan High Commission in Canada for four years in the early 80s - when some of the fighting was most severe - and which from our vantage point in Canada gave us some respite from an otherwise omnipresent conflict.
He came as a diplomat but then my father filed for refugee status after four years when his life was threatened by militants. We stayed in Canada as refugees. My dad never really landed on his feet and we grew up on welfare.
My mom stepped up. She did an incredible thing and put our family on her back and kept marching forward. Sometimes the steps were very small but she always tried to keep moving forward.
I worked at Burger King starting at 14, giving my paycheck to my mom and dad to support our family in the role that I was assigned - earn enough to pay for our bus passes because we couldn’t afford a car.
I was a loser growing up. Some friends, some good memories but mostly forgettable and lonely. I wasn’t very studious but did get my act together in my final year and got into a great university.
I immigrated to the US soon after graduating and found an opportunity. Things clicked and I have been traveling a path to find myself ever since. Only in America is this possible…
I worked hard, followed the rules, paid my taxes and stayed in California out of loyalty for the opportunities it has given me despite its dysfunction.
I found my wife here. Had my kids here. Found my tribe here.
There have been some very hard times as well - deaths, divorce, financial pain, mistakes of omission and mistakes of commission. You can’t dwell on these things - they are weights that will pull you down if you’re not careful. Learn from them. Respect them. BUT MOVE ON.
To think 50 years ago I could have ever gotten a chance to meet the people I’ve met and have had the experiences I’ve had would have been mind boggling to my parents. It’s mind boggling to me now.
We forget often and try to convince others it’s not true but America truly is the best country in the world. Everything and anything is possible here. I can testify. Be grateful to be here.
This is the only place that gives EVERYONE a chance to live a great adventure. The first 50 years have been that for me - an incredible adventure.
Notice there is nothing here about accomplishments or money. Because it doesn’t matter and it won’t matter.
You will be dust in less than 100 years from now and the decision to be remembered won’t be yours so stop sweating it. It’s not in your control.
So what is in your control?
Be kind. Have fun. Work on something meaningful to you. Find your tribe. Try to find perspective. Find an incredible partner. Have a bunch of kids. Live an adventure. Forgive your parents - they were doing the best they could even if that wasn’t what you deserved.
I will do what I can to make my next 50 years a wild ride.
You should too.
I love you and thank you. ❤️
🙏🏽🙏🏽
🚨 BIG INTERVIEW: SPENCER PRATT JOINS ALL-IN
David Friedberg sits down with Spencer Pratt to discuss his fight to save Los Angeles.
(0:00) Spencer Pratt vs. the Machine
(3:01) Inside the Palisades Fire: Drained Reservoirs, No Sirens & Watching His House Burn on His Phone
(14:03) Why He's Running for Mayor: FireAid's $100M Scandal & the NGO Corruption Nobody Talks About
(28:10) Karen Bass at 20% & the Real State of LA: Crime, Homelessness & a City in Free Fall
(38:23) Spencer's Plan to Fix LA: Enforcing Laws, Auditing Everyone & the Billionaires Ready to Rebuild
(52:22) Hollywood, LAUSD & Small Business: What It Actually Takes to Make LA #1 Again
(56:25) The Permitting Nightmare Killing Small Business & How AI Fixes It Overnight
(1:04:22) His 8-Year Vision
@friedberg@spencerpratt
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A pacific palisades fire victim named Sue Pascoe started her own investigation after the $100 million dollars in donation money from the FireAid concert ‘went missing’
She personally called all the NGOs to find out who they were giving the money to
Not a single NGO had given any money to actual fire victims of the Pacific Palisades and Altadena fires
Reminder, investigators were able to track roughly $75 million had been granted to 120–188 nonprofits. Not a dime went to victims directly
Gavin Newsom created a NGO and got some of the money
The Billionaire Tax is actually an Everyone Tax.
The Billionaire Tax is a new tax proposal written by four professors who don't believe in the American dream. Some of them aren’t even American…go figure.
Despite its name, it applies to every California resident who currently has assets or ever will.
The creators named it the Billionaire Tax so you would get into a froth andwouldn't look closely at what it actually does to you.
On page twenty-six, it explains how the government can convert to an Everyone Tax without voter approval.
They can also adjust the tax to be a yearly tax, not just one time…again, without your approval.
Here's how the tax would work: As a voter, you're being asked to approve a tax that would require you to:
1. list all your assets and the value of each, then submit them to the California Franchise Tax Board.
2. authorize the tax board to appraise your assets and confirm the value of each.
3. pay a penalty of up to forty percent of your tax bill if the board determines your reported value was too low in their opinion.
4. allow the tax board to subpoena your financial records from every one of your financial institutions for auditing.
This Everyone Tax runs 34 pages of shifty language describing how the government plans to take your assets. Read the fine print and decide for yourself.
If this were truly a billionaire tax, it would be 3 pages.
It’s 34 pages so that it can create the mechanisms to steal from all of you.
🚨 Exposing California's corrupt "Stop Nick Shirley Act", instead of going after the fraudsters California is now going after the people exposing the fraud.
This bill AB 2624 will:
- Criminalize journalists with misdemeanors, $10,000 fines, imprisonment, and content takedown
- Let immigrant based NGOs' funding be confidential
- Take away freedom of the press from journalists
- Protect any "immigration support services" information from being public (healthcare, legal services, etc)
This bill was created by the Attorney General's WIFE Mia Bonta to stop fraud from being exposed. Please like and share this video everywhere! By trying to silence and intimidate journalists, they are trying to hide the truth from you. EXPOSE ALL THE FRAUD.
San Francisco reports a violent crime every 51 minutes.
> Most of them are in just 3 neighbourhoods.
> Most of them are between 1 PM and 7 PM.
> Most of them never resolved.
I mapped all of it. Real-time. Filterable. Free.
I built https://t.co/R1jAMUfNTv — a free public database for American citizens who deserve safer communities.
You can track which judges released defendants who then got rearrested, skipped court, or violated their release conditions. All public records. All free.
I started with Orange County FL and will be expanding to all 67 Florida counties and eventually every state in the country. This first batch of info is from 2024 and since public reports are released in March/April for the previous year, data is behind. But I wanted to see if this is plausible. After adding 2024,I'll add 2025 and then figure out how to get real-time-data uploaded.
It's in beta — would love to know what you think 👇
Numbers don't lie, but criminals do.
https://t.co/DfTcJ6XMYn
@bennyjohnson@jockowillink@GrantCardone@LauraLoomer@nickshirleyy@jamesfishback
BREAKING: David @friedberg says "California is functionally bankrupt"
"People don't realize how screwed California is, & I worry that if California falls, so does the union.
"$250 billion to $1 trillion short."
"This is because for California to get rescued would be a big cost to red states, & I think it creates in the years ahead a lot of tension."
"California's functional bankruptcy is a major risk to the country. & I think we need to figure out what we can change to fix it."
How we got here:
"California has a public pension system, & that public pension system retirees have paid into it & they get some benefits out, & the amount that they're owed back out is somewhere between $250 billion - $1 trillion dollars more than has been paid in.
$250 billion to $1 trillion short.
If it was the federal government, it would be like, okay, we'll just print more money. California doesn't have the ability to print money, so California has to pay this out, and you can't restructure retirement benefits.
There is a Supreme Court case in California that said that once an employee has been offered retirement benefits, even if they're currently an employee, you can never restructure their retirement benefits.
It has to stay forever, and the state cannot declare bankruptcy. There's no way for the state to functionally declare bankruptcy. There's no law to allow it. No state has ever declared bankruptcy, and the retirement benefits sit senior to the bonds in California.
So you have to pay out the retirement benefits before you pay out all the bond holders that have loaned California the money that they use to run all their programs and services."
Hill & Valley Forum 2026 (@HillValleyForum)
🚨 WOW. James O'Keefe just documented SEVERAL DOZEN instances of California ballot petition fraud on Skid Row with the involvement of NGOs
Petitioners illegally buy signatures from homeless people with cash or drugs
"Many have ZERO understanding of what they're signing!"
"What is the petition for?"
"And entering made up addresses.":
"Oh, you can just fake an address?"
This is a BOMBSHELL! California is the fraud capital of America. @JamesOKeefeIII