On The Bright Side

Back in ‘99-00 I lived down there for the better part of a year. Went down to save sea turtles in Gandoca and when the project was over I somehow wound up working for Kurt in Puerto Viejo at his hotel. That part of Costa Rica does have a lot of drug activity with close proximity to Panama. A week after I came back to the States a couple girls were killed in the same town. So not surprising, but also very sad to hear this.

@CollinRugg Just horrible. Costa Rica has always been known as the safest countries in Central America

Surfing legend Kurt Van Dyke, 66, strangled and stabbed to death in Costa Rica, 31-year-old girlfriend found zip-tied and beaten. The brother of Van Dyke says the killing is "more nefarious" than a random break-in gone wrong. Van Dyke was found with multiple stab wounds and evidence of asphyxiation. He was discovered with a sheet over his head and a knife next to him. The intruders left with valuables and a car. Van Dyke's brother, Peter, says he spoke with him days before and said that he was "in good spirits." Peter also noted there were people in the area "who did not like him." "There are people who like him and there are people who don’t. It was more nefarious," he said to the New York Post. Kurt Van Dyke owned a hotel in Puerto Viejo de Talamanca. His girlfriend was reportedly in the shower when two armed men broke into the home and forced them both into a room at gunpoint.

Hoping so many new viewers check out the sport this weekend. The pros make it look so easy, I hope @PatMcAfeeShow gives it a go and we get to see him shred on dirt!

@ThePrtyAnimals 🎯 nailed it!

Did they nail this orrrr did they nail this?? 😤 #PartyAnimals | #Sonic3

You know the economy is bad when this is what $6000 in groceries gets you.

@TimKennedyMMA Is it really too much to ask?

I know there is a lot of cuts to regulations happening throughout our government but until we can own a Toyota Hilux we are not free!

@chiefgrug @TimKennedyMMA 🎯

@TimKennedyMMA The diesel one specifically 🤙🏼

@luciano22925243 👀Washougal

@APsMullet Yes

Just show me the KX 2-Stroke.

@APsMullet Jet skis are so fun, try railing around a bouy and try to keep a straight face, dare ya.

Things I don’t care about: Dakar, Jet Skis, Baseball Players… hmm what other random shit do they talk about?

@Danielblair125 On 🔥 his corner speed is solid!

Hombre is shredding!!!!

Kawasaki announces a two stroke today.. what is today’s date? 👀👀

We Heard You. #2Stroke #GoodTimes #Kawasaki

@Leo4AzHouse @realDonaldTrump @VivekGRamaswamy @TulsiGabbard @JustinWilmethAZ Congrats from Havasu! 🌵🇺🇸

An amazing tradition today at the Washington National Prayer with @realDonaldTrump, @VivekGRamaswamy, @TulsiGabbard and others. Sad that it had to be ruined by someone who felt the need to make the message of God political in her closing remarks. 🇺🇸🙏

@Danielblair125 👀

I’m at a gymnastics tourney with my daughter. There are little brothers everywhere. How do we get these kids on bikes? How do we replace Nike and Reebok with Fox and Fly? How do we replaces bats and balls with throttles and jumps? Working on something….give me a couple months.

Saw this randomly on Facebook with no credits, but it's definitely the best picture from the Flight 7 launch 🤣🎣🐠🚀

Accurate

@mikeroweworks 🔥

Round 2 The conversations around my most recent posts have been…robust. Especially around Kevin O'Leary's article that suggested federal aid to California should be contingent on new leadership in California. Janene Dyar Dockens writes... "You disappoint me, Mike. The article you shared is irresponsible and does nothing to help understanding." Hi Janene, Sorry to hear you're disappointed. I only shared the article because it reflects the thoughts of a lot of taxpayers on both sides of the aisle. If this were purely a partisan issue, I’d avoid the topic entirely. But it’s not. Millions of taxpayers all over the country who routinely vote “D” are shaken by the behavior of Bass and Newsom, and millions of California residents—me included—are appalled by their behavior. Not because they’re democrats, but because they have revealed themselves to be out of touch, arrogant, and hypocritical. The article is relevant because it goes without saying that California will require a lot of federal assistance to recover, and taxpayers have a right to understand the extent to which the forests and water supplies in California have been mismanaged by our elected officials, as well as LAFD. “To tie Bass to the devastation because she wasn’t here is ridiculous. No one… NO ONE could have predicted this. We don’t get 100 mph winds in Los Angeles. We don’t get wildfires in the middle of winter.” I haven't tied the mayor to the devastation; I’ve tied her to her own words. Karen Bass promised to “never leave Los Angeles” while she was in office. She violated that promise by taking five international trips—including her most recent flight to Ghana. Perhaps the voters will forgive her for that, just as they forgave Governor Newsom for dining at The French Laundry while regular citizens were arrested for violating the very rules he decided did not apply to him. But I don’t think so. Not this time. I think a lot of people who voted for Bass and Newsom are feeling like the LA Times, who just publicly apologized to their readers for endorsing Mayor Bass. As for your claim that “NO ONE” could have predicted this, I’m afraid you’re mistaken. The Santa Ana winds are not unprecedented, even in January, and neither are any of the meteorological conditions that precipitated these fires. The fact is, lots of people have predicted a fire like this for decades, including the director of Water and Energy Policy at The California Policy Center, who I interviewed at length, and the fire service themselves, who produced this documentary 62 years ago in the wake of a very similar fire that tore through Brentwood and Bel Air. bit.ly/4g2EEMD And of course, there’s the official forecast from the National Weather Service a day before the fire that described a “Particularly Dangerous Situation Red Flag Warning with extremely rare and dangerous fire weather conditions.” And finally, the mayor herself, who issued a VERY serious warning to everyone in Los Angeles 24 hours before she left for Africa. With respect, it’s not only inaccurate to say that "NO ONE" saw this coming; it’s preposterous. “As for the out-of-state fire trucks, I’m just glad help came. We had crews here we wouldn’t have otherwise had. If they were stopped for inspection, well, ok. As we understand it, each truck took about 15 minutes and was on its way when the inspection was done.” Again, I’m afraid your understanding of the situation is not accurate. In situations like this, firefighters come from all over to help out, no matter who is in office. This is true in every state. You’re also mistaken about the inspection time. The average inspection took 45 minutes, not 15 minutes. bit.ly/3CmTHTg. And that doesn’t count the time it took for the engines to get to the inspection station in Sacramento. With respect, Janene, would you be so casual about such a delay if it was your house that was on fire? “And leave the governor alone. He’s doing his job. No matter how much you do or don’t like him, it’s because of him we got the additional resources in the first place.” My personal feelings about the governor are not relevant, and neither are yours. Again, those firefighters from out of state would have come no matter who was in office. However, his decision to go on Pod Save America in the midst of the crisis to defend his reputation was uniquely his and no less self-absorbed than the French Laundry incident. How did that benefit the citizens he’s sworn to protect in a time of extraordinary crisis? Never mind his detractors or his political foes. Many lifelong Democratic supporters are enraged by the optics of this, and I don’t blame them. The hubris is breathtaking. “You want to scream at someone? Scream at the sky for not giving us rain. Scream at the wind for blowing at hurricane speeds in a place that had no rain. Scream at the ground for daring to be dry. Scream at the embers for daring to fly. Scream at the person (if there is one) responsible for starting a fire in such conditions.” I’m not a screamer, Janene, but even if I was, I wouldn’t waste my breath screaming at the weather or anything else on the long list of things beyond my control. However, as a resident of California, I’ll reserve my right to criticize our elected officials when they enact policies I disagree with. Obviously, if the fire was deliberately started, I’ll demand accountability for that as well, in the harshest possible way. But the issues here go far beyond the cause of this particular fire, or any fire to burn California in recent memory. Obviously, we need to know if it was arson, but fire prevention is very different than fire suppression, and Californians need to understand why so many wildfires routinely burn out of control for days on end. That’s where the state has failed most dramatically, in my opinion, which is why I posted my interview with Edward Ring, which I encourage you to listen to. bit.ly/3PA6zIW. “Mike, I’ve been a fan of yours a long time. But, if you’re going to armchair quarterback this, then do so responsibly. Fanning the flames is not helpful. We don’t need grief-stricken folks goaded into pointing fingers and throwing anger (and commentary) around to make matters worse.” I think I’ve made my case responsibly and respectfully. And if you think I’m an “armchair quarterback” for pointing out the decisions that led to this disaster, how do you feel about the LA Times? Are they also being “irresponsible” for printing this? “As the Los Angeles Fire Department faced extraordinary warnings of life-threatening winds, top commanders decided not to assign for emergency deployment roughly 1,000 available firefighters and dozens of water-carrying engines in advance of the fire that destroyed much of the Pacific Palisades and continues to burn, interviews and internal LAFD records show. Fire officials chose not to order the firefighters to remain on duty for a second shift last Tuesday as the winds were building—which would have doubled the personnel on hand—and staffed just five of more than 40 engines that are available to aid in battling wildfires, according to the records obtained by The Times, as well as interviews with LAFD officials and former chiefs with knowledge of city operations.” The facts seem pretty clear to me. California’s governor—like the governors before him—have allowed our state to turn into a tinderbox, and the mayor of Los Angeles abandoned her city at a time when the risk of a massive fire was clear and present. If you’re inclined to ignore that, so be it. My hope, though, is that others will not. My hope is that Californians will stop voting for candidates simply because there’s a D or an R next to their name. If we want our elected officials to tell us the truth, live up to their promises, and enact common-sense policies, we need to hold them accountable when they don’t. It’s really as simple as that. Mike PS. Lots of people also objected to the way I’ve ignored other disasters in other states. Many have asked why I’m not calling for federal funds to be contingent on new leadership in those states. Two reasons. First of all, we’re not talking about disaster avoidance here; we’re talking about disaster preparedness. If New Orleans had refused to build levees for its residents, or Oklahoma had refused to build tornado shelters—the same way that California has refused to implement controlled burns and basic land and water management—I’d be critical of the elected officials. Obviously, we can’t prevent wildfires in California any more than we can prevent hurricanes in North Carolina or twisters in Oklahoma. But if you’re in charge of a town that happens to be below sea level or in the middle of tornado alley, you need to enact policies that protect your people in the wake of those inevitabilities. California is now an indisputable tinderbox, and our elected officials, in my opinion, have failed time and time again to take critical steps necessary to help mitigate the impact of these disasters. Secondly, California is my home. I vote here. I have an office in Santa Monica that was adjacent to the evacuation zone, and I live up north, where wildfires have devastated many thousands of acres not far from my house. I have skin in the game, and in that respect, I’m probably guilty of holding my elected officials to a higher standard than I do for those in other states. I can only hope my neighbors do the same.

@chamath @BillyM2k 💥

@BillyM2k Humility with a dash of gratitude and spirituality. I also stretch.

Her Tears Said It All: “My Prayers Have Been Answered” #mowing #edging #cleanup #asmr #satisfying #sbmowing #cleaning #overgrownyard #fyp #fypシ #viral #viralvideo #transformation #overgrown #maruyama #badboymower #muckboots

@LaurenGruel 👀

If you want to make this tomorrow...You'll need the following: honey, salt, active dry yeast, AP flour, unsalted butter, apple cider vinegar and a stand mixer with a dough hook.