Truck drivers fed up with Trump's high diesel prices are staging a boycott and parking their rigs.
Things are about to get real.
Stock up on as many groceries and essentials as you can.
Things could get really ugly very quick.
In 1988 Dolly Parton pulled every 7th and 8th grader in Sevier County into a room and told them to pick a buddy.
She made them sign a contract.. if BOTH graduate, she hands you both $500. One fails, nobody gets paid.
The county dropout rate went from 35% to 6%.
She handed out the checks herself.
In 1989 she offered $500 to every kid in the county who wanted to go to the local college.
When Gatlinburg burned in 2016, she sent 900 families $1,000 a month for six months.
You've probably heard that part.
Here's the part you haven't:
The fund raised more than expected, so she showed up in May and handed every one of those families another $5,000 on top.
Then she quietly put $3 million into the recovery group that handles the years after the news trucks leave.
She built her county an entire hospital.
She played a benefit concert in 2007, Dollywood and the Stampede matched it, and LeConte Medical Center opened in 2010 with a birthing unit and a women's center in it.
In 2022 she started covering 100% of tuition, books, and fees for Dollywood employees.
Full-time, part-time, AND seasonal.
In 1991 she paid for a bald eagle sanctuary because the birds couldn't be released back into the wild, no press release.
And when Hurricane Helene came through here in Western North Carolina, she wrote a personal check for $1 million and her companies matched it.
She didn't owe North Carolina anything, but she helped us anyway.
She started the Imagination Library because her daddy couldn't read or write. Before he passed, he told her it was the most important thing she ever did.
Rest in Peace, Dolly 🇺🇸
1969 Woodstock booking fees
Adjusted to approximate 2026 dollars:
Jimi Hendrix — $164,000
Blood, Sweat & Tears — $136,700
Joan Baez — $91,100
Creedence Clearwater Revival — $91,100
The Band — $68,300
Janis Joplin — $68,300
Jefferson Airplane — $68,300
Sly & the Family Stone — $63,800
Canned Heat — $59,200
The Who — $56,900
Richie Havens — $54,700
Arlo Guthrie — $45,600
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young — $45,600
Ravi Shankar — $41,000
Johnny Winter — $34,200
Ten Years After — $29,600
Country Joe and the Fish — $22,800
Grateful Dead — $22,800
The Incredible String Band — $20,500
Mountain — $18,200
Tim Hardin — $18,200
Paul Butterfield Blues Band — $16,400
Bert Sommer — $13,700
Joe Cocker — $12,500
Sweetwater — $11,400
John B. Sebastian — $9,100
Melanie — $6,800
Santana — $6,800
Sha Na Na — $6,400
Keef Hartley Band — $4,600
Quill — $3,400
Country Joe McDonald (Solo) — $0
Richard Gere: We're living in the darkest moment that I've experienced on this planet. Whoever thought America could turn like this?
Whoever thought that a maniac like this would be president of the United States and dismantle all the good things?
America has never been a perfect place, but it has a perfect ideal that it's moving towards and always has, and it's been self-corrective.
First day, this guy dismantled almost everything that was good about the US government and the US people.
How is this even possible? Because we went to sleep. We didn't care. We didn't vote. We didn't really listen.
You know, of course, I didn't vote for this guy, but I didn't do enough work to skillfully convince people around me.
People close to me, not close to me, that this was insane to elect this person as president of the United States.
We all have to take responsibility for this. But how quickly, this was in weeks, he had dismantled America.
And you see how quickly our world can be taken from us if we fall asleep. And so we have to see the cues.
We have to see the cues, this dictatorship of the monsters. How quickly it happens. We have to be vigilant.
We can't sit back and go, "Ah, life is good, I'm fine. You know, I've got food, I've got money, blah blah, I've got my house, I've got another car, I'm thinking about this, blah blah, I'm okay. I know he's a bad guy, but it's okay."
It's not okay! It's never okay.
I’ve let my kids stay up late the last two nights so we could play board games. On Saturday we played Scrabble until it was an hour past their bedtime and then I decided that we’d have ice cream and watch TV for a while. They were thrilled. This time I spent with my kids wasn’t a “sacrifice” or a burden I heroically shouldered for their sake. I like hanging out with them. They’re smart and funny and fun to be around. Sure they can be annoying sometimes, but anyone can be annoying. I’ve annoyed countless people in my day. Including my kids.
If you hate being a parent and actively resent your children, it’s either because you categorically refuse to get out of your own head and put in the minimal effort it requires to develop a real relationship with them, or it’s because you’ve done a really crappy job raising them so now they’re hard to be around. Either way, it’s a you problem. It’s your fault. Not theirs. It’s your responsibility, then, to pretend you don’t hate it.
Yes, pretend. Yes, suppress your true feelings. Yes, put on an act. Maintain the facade for your kids, because it’s deeply scarring and unfair to saddle them with your personal issues. And maintain the facade for the public, because frankly we don’t want to have to deal with your narcissistic nonsense either. Your “true self” is unsightly and off putting, and you shouldn���t force anyone to bear witness to it.
So fake it til you make it. Act like the kind of parent you should be, until you actually become that parent. Shoulder the burden of your own narcissism silently and with dignity. If you do that, after a while, and by definition, you will no longer be a narcissist. One day you’ll look up and realize that you’re actually not faking it anymore. You really do enjoy giving your time and yourself to those you love.
At least that’s how it often works. I don’t know if it will for you or not. But either way, whatever you do, don’t take your failures out on your children.
Japanese actor Hiroyuki Sanada spoke about the contradictions of human nature:
“Some people dream of having a swimming pool at home, while those who have one hardly ever use it. Those who have lost a loved one feel a profound sense of loss, while others often complain about their living relatives. Those without a partner long for one, while those who have one often don't appreciate it. The hungry would give anything for a meal, while the satiated complain about the taste of their food. Those without a car dream of owning one, while those who have a car are always looking for a better one.”
The key to happiness is gratitude: truly seeing and appreciating what we already have, and understanding that somewhere, someone would give anything for what we take for granted.
“You can’t love children too much.”
Gabor Maté flips the “mama’s boy” stereotype on its head:
A landmark study followed newborns and how their mothers related to them.
Most moms were attuned and loving.
Some were distant.
Some were extra doting and coddling.
35 years later?
The adults who turned out most independent, successful, and self-actualized were the ones who received super abundant love from their mothers.
Maté’s takeaway:
The real “mama’s boy” isn’t created by too much love—it’s created by anxious love.
When a mother coddles not because the child needs it, but because she needs it to soothe her own anxiety, the child absorbs that anxiety.
It’s not excessive love that creates dependency… it’s unresolved parental anxiety being downloaded into the child.
Clip from this 52-second gem — Maté dismantling the myth with science and compassion.
Ever notice how the most confident people often had parents who were unapologetically loving?
Or seen how anxiety can quietly pass down generations?
Your thoughts — drop them below.
An aerospace engineering company has designed a glass pod that can be attached to existing aircraft.
This pod has two seats and allows passengers to enjoy a 360-degree view during the flight.