Chris Hansen

lol

Fun fact! California taxpayers invested heavily in developing Squaw Valley as the host site for the 1960 Winter Olympics. After the Games ended, Governor Pat Brown (Governor Jerry Brown’s father) awarded operating rights on the resort facilities to William Newsom Sr. (Gavin Newsom’s grandfather) and his business partner, John Pelosi (Nancy Pelosi’s father-in-law). The business was very profitable for the Newsom family over the years, and Gavin Newsom himself operated a business at the former Olympic facility. As George Carlin said—it’s a big club, and you ain’t in it!

John Ekdahl was my best friend. He died today of cancer, at 47. I know that some of you knew and loved John, so I thought I’d let you all know. I have set up a GoFundMe for his family, which is linked in this tweet. John and I “met” on Twitter about 13 years ago, and then, a couple of years later, met in person at the 2014 NRA Convention in Indianapolis. We quickly realized that we had a lot of the same interests—technology, amusement parks, baseball (we were both Yankees fans)—and soon started texting about everything and nothing. In 2015, when I published my book, the first stop on my promotional tour was in Jacksonville, where John lived. I asked him which hotel I should stay at, and he said that, instead, I should stay with him and his family. So I did. From that moment on, he and his wife (and their two kids—one of whom had just been born) became my closest friends. When, in 2017, my wife and I decided to move to Florida, John barraged me with propaganda about Jacksonville, and invited us to stay for a few days so that he and his wife could show us around. We were sold. John was like that. For the first few years after I moved to the United States, I wasn’t into the NFL. In 2016, this started to change, so John began a remote campaign to turn me into a Jaguars fan. “Jags are on,” he’d text apropos of nothing on a Sunday, even though he knew that, from Connecticut, the chance of my getting the game was close to zero. As part of this effort, I got weekly AFC South updates, a series of memes about Blake Bortles, and an introduction to the perfidious cabaret act that is the Tennessee Titans. John even invited me down to see a game against the Colts—which the Jaguars won 30-10. In my first real season as a fan, the Jaguars made the AFC Championship game, and were minutes away from making their first Super Bowl. After I moved down to Florida, John and I bought season tickets together, which we kept until the end. I had hoped devoutly that the Jaguars would make the Super Bowl this season—which was destined to be John’s last. During the pandemic, John and I started a business together that, relative to our expectations, did pretty well for a while. As is typical, most of our ideas didn’t pan out, but that didn’t matter. We had fun coming up with them at the bar, adding “just one more drink” to the tab to make sure that we hadn’t missed an angle or forgotten to write something crucial down on the back of an increasingly ragged napkin. I am 41-years-old and, with the exception of my wife, I’ve never met anyone who was easier to talk to than John. If we went for lunch, we’d go for hours, chatting about sports and rollercoasters and our kids and the new iPhone and the unforgivable changes that Disney made to Epcot in 1999. I shall miss that immensely. There was one thing we didn’t talk about: At no point since his diagnosis, did John and I ever acknowledge with each other how serious his condition was, or that, all things being equal, it was likely to take him before his time. From the start, it seemed that John silently picked me to be the person with whom he could pretend that everything was normal, and I fulfilled this role until the last. Even when things were clearly terrible, we’d make plans—to take a trip to New Hampshire with our families and friends; to ride the new rollercoaster at Epic Universe; to go to opening day at the new Jaguars Stadium in 2028; and more. The last time I saw him, I said the same thing as I said every time I'd chatted with him over the last 11 years: "Talk to you in a bit." gofund.me/20cbdce0f

In all seriousness: the fundamental practical message of the Democratic Party is that you should expect to pay European-level taxes for South African-level public services. Nobody in the Party really offers a solution, though their brightest think we should build more housing.

yeah idk what you do about this man

The social contract has collapsed in the DMV: localities just gave up on snow removal, neighbors refuse to shovel sidewalks, drivers are being nuts in snow packed roads, people are screaming at each other over “stolen” parking spots The only hope is one day the ice will melt

In all honesty I struggled with my weight my entire adult life. Zepbound changed my life and now im the healthiest ive ever been. If you’re one of the millions of Americans struggling with your weight, talk to your doctor because it could change, or save, your life as well.

September 2024: “I’m going to take Zepbound probably nobody will notice”

I joined @technology today to discuss the Golden Dome, ISS medical evacuation, and the importance of close coordination across private and public partners — watch below! bit.ly/4aXGqQ8

The @nypost Editorial Board is exactly right. Worth reading: “America is absolutely guaranteed to lose the race with China to set the global standards for AI if US developers have to cope with 50 different sets of contradictory regulation — and the nation would pay a huge long-term economic price for that loss.”

Give the whole thing a read if you have a second open.substack.com/pub/bradleytod…

No joke @BradOnMessage substack this morning made me laugh like 10x.

I'm so sorry someone quoted you

You forced Obamacare through 16 years ago while Republicans warned it would make premiums skyrocket?  “Yes Dave.” And then premiums skyrocketed? “Yes Dave.” Then under Biden you passed additional subsidies to pay for these high premiums? “Yes Dave.” And now these subsidies are largely corporate welfare driven by fraud? “Yes Dave.”  And now you’re shutting down the government to continue these subsidies?  “That’s correct Dave.”

Yikes! @billberrienwi no showed on @Manitowoc_GOP tonight because his campaign said he had “a very rough week” @ZimmermanWBAY

This message attacking Charlie Kirk’s funeral was paid for Democrat dark money groups.

By far one of the best videos on social media right now. Just wow.

The fact that a significantly better play was made in the same game will never not be funny 😭😭😭

Four years ago, I found JJ Spaun working on his game at a Scottsdale muni, what can best be described as a goat track. I asked what he was doing there; he said practicing alongside everyday golfers kept him rooted. Really cool to see a guy like that get an opportunity like this

Many hilarious moments this weekend in Oakmont. This one’s untoppable.