Terry Hawkins

Former Ping Pong Champion

[Magnus Lindberg @MagnusLindbrg]

Potatoes are absurdly filling. People fear them for no reason.

Baked potato, steak or chicken or fish, Greek yogurt instead of sour cream.

Hunger drops hard. Fat loss follows.

[jim iuorio @jimiuorio]

My Illinois friends, you remember when Governor Pritzker was screaming about high gas prices? He’s raising the gas tax…

[Ladytron Fan Account @Lady_FanAccount]

Otis Redding died in a plane crash just three days after recording "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay". Since he had not yet finished the lyrics, he ended up whistling the ending, and this whistling was in the official version. Steve Cropper completed the songwriting after his death.

Released as a single in January 1968, it was Otis' first and only single to reach #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, where it spent four weeks at the top. The song won two posthumous Grammys and became one of the greatest classics in soul music.

[Julie Fredrickson @AlmostMedia]

They hated him because he told the truth

[Fascinating @fasc1nate]

While making Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Alan Rickman was so unhappy with the script that he asked friends Ruby Wax and Peter Barnes to help rewrite some of his scenes.

One of the film's most memorable moments, in which the Sheriff of Nottingham orders two women to his room at different times before adding, "and bring a friend," was reportedly created during these unofficial rewrites. Rickman later recalled that only director Kevin Reynolds knew about the changes, and the crew struggled not to laugh when the scene was filmed.

Rickman's darkly comic performance as the Sheriff became one of the film's highlights. Although there were rumors that some of his scenes were cut, his portrayal stole the spotlight and earned him a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor.

The film was a major box-office success, but many viewers still remember it most for Rickman's witty, scene-stealing villain.

More brilliant film details: https://t.co/us0AWanKHY

[Troll Football Media @TrollFootball2]

These hydration breaks are getting out of hand

[Patrick McKenzie @patio11]

Have I mentioned recently that Illinois is grasping as a result of having borked finances due to being unable to make hard decisions that would impact politically influential constituent groups?

Anyhow, today's example is crypto.

[Bitcoin News @BitcoinNewsCom]

🚨 ILLINOIS ENACTS MOST AGGRESSIVE BITCOIN TAX IN THE 🇺🇸 US

Governor J.B. Pritzker has signed Illinois’ new Digital Asset Tax Act into law.

Starting January 1, 2027, Illinois will impose a 0.20% tax on the gross value of digital assets exchanged, transferred, or stored for customers.

In practice:

• Buy Bitcoin? Pay the tax.
• Transfer Bitcoin? Pay the tax.
• Store BTC with a custodian? Pay the tax.

Move $1 million through a bank wire, ACH transfer, brokerage account, or traditional custodian and Illinois takes nothing.

Move that same $1 million as a digital asset and the state takes $2,000.

The tax applies regardless of whether there is any profit, income, or capital gain. It is levied simply because a digital asset is being exchanged, transferred, or stored.

Critics argue this creates a first-of-its-kind regime that singles out blockchain-based activity while leaving analogous banking, brokerage, custody, and payment services untouched.

The law targets the service layer of the digital asset economy. While trading for one’s own account is excluded, businesses facilitating exchange, transfer, or custody for customers must collect and remit the tax, with customers ultimately liable if it is not collected.

The Crypto Council for Innovation warned that Illinois is becoming a national outlier by adopting a transaction-based tax on digital assets that has no comparable equivalent for stocks, bonds, derivatives, bank deposits, or traditional financial transactions anywhere else in the country.

Industry groups say the law is a powerful incentive for entrepreneurs, startups, and investment to leave Illinois for more competitive jurisdictions.

Perhaps most surprising is the timing. Illinois only recently adopted the Digital Assets and Consumer Protection Act (DACPA), a framework many viewed as a constructive approach to blockchain innovation. This new tax represents a sharp reversal.

The question now is whether other states follow Illinois’ lead, or whether this becomes a case study in how to drive an emerging industry elsewhere.

[i/o @avidseries]

Extraordinary.

Among the many claims that Al Gore got wrong or grossly overstated were:

(1) An imminent 20-foot sea level rise

(2) The disappearance of snow on Mount Kilimanjaro

(3) Polar bears drowning in "significant numbers"

(4) Hurricane Katrina was a direct result of warming

(5) An influx of fresh meltwater from Greenland could completely halt the Gulf Stream, potentially plunging Northern Europe into a sudden ice age

(6) The drying of Lake Chad was entirely due to global warming

(7) Rising carbon dioxide levels historically directly caused the Earth's temperature to rise in a cause-and-effect relationship

(8) Glacier National Park would lose all (or nearly all) its glaciers soon

(9) Arctic summer sea ice could disappear very soon

(10) Low-lying Pacific atolls/islands were currently being inundated now, causing evacuations due to warming

(11) Coral reefs facing imminent widespread destruction primarily from warming

(12) Increased frequency and severity of floods, wildfires, tornadoes, or general extreme weather directly are tied to warming

(13) Himalayan glaciers melting rapidly and will soon lead to depletion of water supplies

[Tactical Manager @ManagerTactical]

Nah man, this is wild.
Pochettino has the USMNT 🇺🇸 looking like 2009 Barcelona.

[Peter H. Diamandis, MD @PeterDiamandis]

People ask me how I stay so optimistic. The honest answer: I read the data, not the headlines.

[Terry Hawkins @tphawk13]

💯

[Yogi @Houseofyogi]

Chicago lost the Bears this week. A team that's been in the city since 1921.

They didn't lose them to a bigger market or a better deal. The Bears decided they'd rather be a tenant in Indiana than deal with Illinois for one more year.

Think about how badly you have to run a place for that to be the smart move.

They lost them for two reasons.

The people running Illinois would rather villainize a builder than keep one. And they're bad at their jobs.

In 2021 the Bears spent $197M on the old Arlington Park racetrack.

Before they could break ground, Cook County valued the empty lot at $192M (Bears said $60M). They were salivating at the chance to extort a building that didn't even exist yet.

That fight dragged on for years.

The Bears were ready to put $2B into the stadium. All they wanted was a promise the county wouldn't reassess them into oblivion, plus $855M for infrastructure everyone uses. Roads, transit, utilities. A $3B project, two thirds of it private money pouring into Illinois.

Springfield had since 2021 to get this done. They dragged it to the final night of session, passed it through the Senate at 3:39AM, and the House went home without voting.

So now it's all gone.

The funniest part? This started because Cook County tried to grab the tax early. They knew a built stadium would pay $53M a year. Now they get under $4M on a vacant lot. No jobs, no buildout, no new anything.

Congrats on fighting for scraps and losing the whole prize.

Pritzker: they're "an $8.5B valued business" that doesn't need propping up.

But be smart for a second. Almost every NFL city throws in public money for a stadium. Not charity. The return is real. Tourism, hotels, restaurants, jobs, game days, property tax on a huge development. The math works.

Indiana did the math. While Illinois sat on it for years, Indiana passed a bill in months, put up $1B, and took the team.

And the Bears took a worse deal to get there. In Illinois they were going to own their stadium. In Indiana they rent it from the state. A team that wanted to build its own home gave up ownership just to escape Chicago.

Nobody won but Indiana. The Bears lost their stadium. Illinois lost the team, the $2B, and $53M a year in taxes.

Pritzker after they left: "I wasn't willing to give up billions of dollars of taxpayer money to give it to a billionaire-owned family or team."

There it is. "Billionaire-owned."

That's how Democrats talk about any business right before they run it out of town. Call them a billionaire, act like you're saving working families, take a victory lap while the tax base drives across the state line.

Meanwhile they're running the whole state into the ground. And you already know how this ends. You're living in it.

Pensions are $143B in the hole, worst in the country and not close. You pay $6,285 a year in property taxes, double the $2,969 national average, for a city that's $1.15B in the red. The mayor called its finances "the point of no return."

When you run things this badly, you sell what's left.

They leased the parking meters for 75 years to Morgan Stanley and a sovereign wealth fund in Abu Dhabi. Took $1.15B and burned through it in two years. The investors already made it all back, with 58 years left to collect.

Sold the Skyway. Sold the downtown garages. Every asset that made money, gone for one check.

But a fixed property tax rate for a team that's been here 106 years? That's "propping up billionaires."

Companies are leaving. Boeing for Virginia. Caterpillar for Texas. Citadel for Miami. In 2023 alone Illinois lost 56,000 people and $6B in income to other states. The ones who left earned a third more than the ones who moved in.

Indiana didn't outbid anyone. AAA credit, 16 years straight. A $676M surplus. Fourth-lowest debt per person in the country. They just weren't a disaster.

Illinois could have collected $53M a year. It chose zero. Ignore all the bad management but make sure to stick it to those evil, pesky billionaires.

[Mindset for Money @Mindset4Money_X]

Warren Buffett watching Berkshire buy $GOOGL at the same price and time as Cathie Wood:

[Terry Hawkins @tphawk13]

That checks

[Chris Emma @CEmma670]

Mayor Brandon Johnson on the Soldier Field game day traffic: "Let me tell you how bad it is — Bears vs. Packers, I'm at the game, we're losing. I decide to leave to beat the traffic. Before I get out of the footprint, the Bears had come back to win."

[jim iuorio @jimiuorio]

My belief was that Illinois and @JBPritzker were always going to blow up the @bears negotiations. They’ve never really cared about what the people want or what is best for the state. It’s all some weird posturing that blows up in our faces. This though is far less a misstep than losing the George Lucas Star Wars museum…that woulda been a massive revenue generator…

[Greg Braggs Jr. @GBraggsJr23]

It's interesting...

I remember hearing grumblings about Kevin Warren being hard to work with when he showed the door to many Halas Hall lifers when he came in as President for the Bears.

A Bears team that was riddled in failures and dysfunction, mind you.

Now hearing the same from Illinois politicians. A state that doesn't have the best reputation when it comes to politics as well.

Also heard rumblings from some in the Big Ten that weren't fans of Kevin Warren.

Yet, Kevin Warren got the 8 billion dollar TV deal for the Big Ten as they expanded their conference to the West Coast becoming a super conference.

The Vikings stadium, for all intents and purposes is what all stadiums should strive for from process of paying for it to architecture and structure of thr stadium itself.

The Bears seem to be turning things around since he's arrived. Hard Knocks, Flus fired midseason. Ben Johnson. Playoffs. Etc.

I don't know... maybe just maybe, Kevin Warren is tough to work with because he doesn't operate the way some people want him to. And maybe... just maybe, that's a good thing.

Just a thought.

[indy reporter @Indy_reporter_]

.@GovBraun was just asked about the Chicago Bears at the ceremonial signing of SB76

He says the Chicago Bears spent years waiting for action from Chicago and Illinois leaders and got little to show for it. Indiana, he says, moved quickly and made a competitive offer.

Braun's message to the Bears: Where do you want to spend the next 50 years? In Indiana, with a AAA credit rating, a business-friendly environment, lower taxes, and the ability to build more stadium for the same investment.....or in Illinois, where negotiations have dragged on for years?

Braun says Illinois' inability to get a deal done "tells the whole story" and suggests a formal Bears announcement could come sooner rather than later.

[Michael Warburton @For_Film_Fans]

A wonderful example of the late great NORM MACDONALD’s razor-sharp, quick wit — on Late Night With Conan O’Brien in 1997.

[Students For Liberty @sfliberty]

“Capitalism has created the highest standard of living ever known on earth. The evidence is incontrovertible. The contrast between West and East Berlin is the latest demonstration, like a laboratory experiment for all to see. (...)"

— Ayn Rand