Brian Hellwig

@Codie_Sanchez @Chris_Petkas Congrats! And based on the t shirt, Grateful is the operative word!

I took us years to get here. Never felt more grateful and nervous.

@TomBilyeu @nedryun @RoKhanna Unleashed Tom having @friedberg's back is the best thing on X today. What happens in CA often spreads nationwide within 5 years. Now is a great time to turn this ship around. I sense a Dream Team forming! Perhaps an @theallinpod and @TomBilyeu collaboration is in order?

Speaking of things that wouldn't get a passing grade @RoKhanna... I don't know if you're intentionally conflating things, but let's go point by point. The reason we're back in gilded age territory is because unbalanced budgets force the Fed to print. This makes it impossible to get ahead by saving money. Money printing pushes smart money into the markets to avoid the hidden taxation of inflation. This, and the weaking dollar from money printing, on top of legitimate innovation, drives up asset values. Which puts the rich in an unrealized gains upward spiral. You're absolutely correct that we should get money out of politics. That goes for billionaires, NGOs, foreign governments, and unions. But this reality is not why the American dream is dead. The American dream is dead because: People can't save (inflation), can't bargain hard enough to outpace inflation (globalism), we teach people they're victims, and we make housing unaffordable because we regulate everything to death. Let builders build and take the risk that they build too much. Fuck NIMBYism and people's need for an ever-increasing home price. Don't try to freeze rents - we both know that only makes housing more expensive. Instead, build, build, build. Bring manufacturing back to the US. Globalism was fun while it lasted, but you can't dick ride comparative advantage until all of Middle America is one big rust belt. We all need to compete for our positions and our pay. But the playing field needs to be fair. If businesses compete against each other, and are allowed to fail and go out of business, then talented workers have options and bargaining power. Employees have weak bargaining power right now because of globalization - not evil bosses. If you want teachers and nurses to make more money, let the free market work its magic. We have thrown more and more money at the teachers (and their union) for decades and it hasn't produced better results. You need competition if you want better results. Let parents decide where to send their kids and let them take the tax dollars with them. You'll find out real fast which schools deliver results and which don't. And you're right, we need guardrails against selfish men, but we passed those guardrails a long time ago, and now we're deep into regulatory capture, which selfish men use to weaponize the government. Shrink the government. Dramatically. If you want to revitalize the American dream, balance the budget by cutting. Right now, for every new dollar in tax we bring it, we spend an extra $1.58. No matter how much you tax, you'll always have a spending problem. What we need is a balanced budget, to stop money printing, more incentives to make things in America, H1-B visa reform so we attract talent but at a premium, and not at a discount, don't let people borrow against assets and never pay off the debt, keep money out of politics, and for the love of god, simplify the tax code.

You are blessed. My Dad is my best advisor to this day. My Grandfather on my Dad's side passed long before I was born but my Mom's Dad was my primary caretaker along with my Grandmother and they lived until I was in my late 30's. You can always tell when a person spent time with their elders. They have a different level of respect. Rare in this day and age.

Yeah it’s really close to the cycle I’ve had with my dad as well. He’s still here and still confuses me often, but our relationship is pretty good. He’s my first call when I screw up or need help. I two really good grandfathers, one was younger and active in my life for 40 years, that really helped give more than one example.

My Dad was crazier than yours. He was a man of extremes. A physics PhD and gifted teacher who spent a big chunk of his life in prison. He was deeply religious. His last words were, “I’m ready to see Jesus.” Yet he did things that defy explanation. He never told me he loved me. But I know he did. He viewed me as a less flawed version of himself. He was right. My upbringing—crazy as it may have been—was better than his. As a result, I was able to reach a little further. For decades, I struggled to process it all. Ultimately, I realized there’s no way to reconcile everything. There’s only forgiveness. There’s an old saying: “When you forgive someone, you release the prisoner… and the prisoner isn’t them, it’s you.” I realized that the story I tell myself about my father is also *my* story. I choose to think of Dad as a troubled man who did his best… just like the rest of us fathers. It’s my job to build upon that. RIP Dad. Happy Father’s Day.

@DAVIDMURADZIKWA @Cor_Blimey_Guv @BadCatLoki @atrupar 31 reports and 1,199 likes. But sure, no one agrees with me. And even if I didn't have the metrics to reduce your claim, I'm very comfortable with people disagreeing with me. Being a contrarian with courage, morals and principles is refreshing. You should try it.

@hellwig_brian @Cor_Blimey_Guv @BadCatLoki @atrupar How come not a single person agrees with you ? That should be very worrying

here is Mamdani's entire speech at the Knicks parade, which is easily the best speech I've ever heard at an event of this sort

@BridgetPhetasy @CoachShiffman To quote my 5 yr old, "Why?"

@CoachShiffman Truly my favorite meme

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there

@Post40_ @Camp4 That was the cycle for me with my Father. I'm just glad he is still with us. Time and maturity afforded me the space to go through all of those stages. At one point I realized I had made most of the same mistakes that I had demonized him for. That reality hit hard.

@hellwig_brian @Camp4 “We start by idolizing them, then we demonize them, & finally we humanize them. I'm grateful, flaws & all.” That hits the nail on the head.

@imperfectstar28 @atrupar That's great to hear. I have 50+ family members on my Mom's side alone between Bay Ridge, Astoria, UWS and the Bronx. They don't share your family's affinity. I am very much enjoying Oregon and we will probably move back when Mt kids are older.

@hellwig_brian @atrupar I’m from NYC. Have family there like my mom and many cousins and friends there. All my younger cousins voted for him. My elders did not. Now they love him! My mom raves about him all the time and she was big Cumo fan. They feel hope again. It’s nice to be around. Have fun in OR

@Camp4 Thanks for setting the table. Always appreciate your thoughts!

@hellwig_brian Great add!

Immediately followed and ordered. Thanks for the share @APompliano Happy Father's Day to all the real ones putting in the work and being present for your kids!

@austin_showtime Ordered for my son's bedroom wall!

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@APompliano @austin_showtime Need for my son's bedroom wall.

Newest addition to the collection. @austin_showtime killed it with this one.

@Cernovich Thank you! Happy Father's Day Mike!

Happy Father’s Day.

@StefanMolyneux With that fatherly advice, allow me to wish you a happy Father's Day! Thanks for keeping it straightforward and simple!

I have no sympathy for most poor people. It’s really not that complicated to get out of poverty. Have a job for at least a year, finish high school, and don’t have a kid out of wedlock. It really is that simple.

Genuinely, socialism is the best sounding system. It makes perfect sense for a society to work together to elevate the living standards of everyone together. It makes sense that if someone builds something of enormous value, we accept that it was inevitable that it would have been created at some point and that it was society as a whole that went into the discovery. It seems fair that we would all accept that people have vastly different abilities that yield very different commercial value. How unfair that the person who is naturally good at negotiating a roll-up acquisition strategy is wildly more rewarded than the nurse who returns someone to health or who allows someone to die with dignity. Honestly, I see it. I understand it. The issue is that we are primates running on ancient software. We don’t do stuff for the collective good, we do stuff for our kids. The person who strives for an A on the exam doesn’t study if the grades are equalised. The entrepreneur doesn’t start the company when half the rewards are redistributed to those who didn’t - even though they couldn’t. We’re happy sharing to an extent but we’re not content to put it all in the pot. We’re happy to help those who clearly cannot survive on their own but we’re not happy supporting those who don’t want to work or who struggle to get motivated or focused. Socialism is the smartest system but it doesn’t actually work and has never worked. Really smart people like socialism because they can see how much better society could be … if only it worked. Even John Lennon kept the royalties to Imagine. His heirs will never need to work again from that one song alone. If he truly believed what he was saying, he would declare that it belongs to “all the people living for today”. Capitalists accept human nature. We know there is a better way but we know it’s out of reach. We understand that if you can harness self interest in a pro-social way you will lift living standards enormously. The restaurant owner will feed the village not because it’s good for society but because it’s good for his kids… either way the village is fed. John Lennon will write uplifting songs … but only if he owns the rights. The most important part about capitalism isn’t that it’s better - it’s not. It’s that it actually works in the real world.

@MrTyranitar23 @DanielTGoldkamp @atrupar So I'm not of the Lenape tribe that sold the city to the Dutch? Man, my whole life just shattered. My family came from Italy in 1898 and Poland shortly after. How long have you been here? I'm guessing your family was on the Half Moon with Henry Hudson. You go waayyyyyyy back.

@hellwig_brian @DanielTGoldkamp @atrupar Hellwig is not native for sure 😂😂

@Kazeem Idk but I'm on to the Yanks. A rising tide lifts all boats and I'm hoping the Knicks title brings that championship swagger back to the BX. Winning is contagious. LGY!

Aight, after this Knicks dub what happens if America wins the World Cup?

My kids have yet to have a meltdown at the grocery store. If one did, my wife would probably take him or her to the car or for a wall while I finished shopping. If I was alone I'd do my best to work through it. If that didn't work, buy what I had collected and leave. We are gentle but not weak.

@hellwig_brian @AP4Liberty so gentle parenting but no baby talk — what do you do when they're mid-meltdown at the grocery store

What's your best fatherly advice, dads?