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https://x.com/RamboVanHalen/status/1784817381732384849

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Rambo Van Halen

@RamboVanHalen

Jan 3

Steve Jobs was a prick.

Among other things, he always parked in handicap spots. And no, he didn't pay the ticket.

He exploited a loophole in in the California DMV system which allowed new cars to go unregistered for up to 6 months. So he would lease a new AMG every 6 months and never had to get plates--which effectively made his car ticket proof.

BUT... people loved Steve Jobs. And they loved Apple.

Because Steve Jobs convinced the world that Apple wasn't just another evil corporation, and that he wasn't just another evil billionaire.

In the early 2000s I was living in the Bay Area. I was getting into film work, but to make ends meet I was temping as a litigation assistant at a Silicon Valley law firm.

One night, I was at an artsy party in The City. Someone asked me what I was working on, and I explained that I was working on a lawsuit against Apple. Apple had been marketing their OS as "Unix based" without permission from the entity that owned the Unix copyright, so Apple was being sued.

It was pretty mundane stuff. Nothing scandalous. This was just business. But this neckbeard art professor type turned to me and said "Apple would NEVER do that."

I explained that I'd seen all the discovery documents (because all I did was read discovery documents) and told him yes, they did in fact "do that".

Neckbeard got up out of his chair, stood up straight, and with self righteous indignation said, "Well I'm an Apple person" and walked away.

Then some Asian chick gave me a look of sheer contempt--as if I told her I enjoy hunting pandas-- and said, "We are ALL Apple people" and she walked away too.

So what could I do? There was no rational argument to make. Because by informing them that Apple was involved in a minor copyright dispute I had offended them personally.

That's how much they identified with the Apple brand.

They'd made the brand part of their persona.

This was before the iPod or iPhone when owning an Apple product was a niche thing. Outside of education and creative industries, nobody really used Apple. So owning a Mac made you part of a select tribe.

But more than that, Mac users were emotionally invested in the products. Because Steve Jobs (with help from ad agency Chiat Day) understood the value of emotions.

He also understood beauty. Apple made (and still makes) beautiful products. And they came in beautiful packaging. The design and UI was important. The products were made to be LOVED.

Jobs understood this.

Furthermore, Apple's marketing equated ownership with being a good person. Boring and/or evil people used PCs. But the GOOD people who were changing the world for the better used Mac.

And the people who should have known better--the creative class types who'd read Chomsky and considered themselves immune to propaganda--they ate it up. They loved it.

They loved feeling that they were special, and that they were "good ", and that they were doing good things for the world and making it a better place and all the other hippy bullshit.

And they loved Apple.

And they loved Steve Jobs.

The loved him despite his flaws.

And so what if he went to great lengths to park in handicap spaces and not pay the ticket. In fact, they wouldn't hear of such blasphemy. And if you brought it up you wouldn't have been invited to the San Francisco art parties.

So... this Billionaire Tax is probably going to pass in California. But I have to wonder, would this happen if Steve Jobs was still around?

Because he knew how to make people love him--which is something our current crop of Tech Overlords haven't been able to pull off. In fact, the publics hates them.

Now, I think most of them are admirable people--and I'm sure they pay their parking tickets. But they don't understand what the people really want.

I see them trying to explain their value to society. They cite facts and figures and "empirical evidence" about how they drive the economy and create wealth.

But if you're trying to use facts and figures and "logic" then you've already lost the argument.

Because no amount of rationality will defeat irrational emotions like envy and resentment.

So they'll leave California for Austin or Miami, and maybe they'll be okay for a while. But this thing will come for them eventually--just like it's coming for all of us.

Personally, I'd prefer to see the Tech Lords stand their ground and fight.

And maybe, instead of looking for the best ROI, they should fund art and culture and other beautiful things. Because that would put them on the side of the good and the beautiful.

Just like Steve Jobs.

Just like Apple.

This isn't an original idea. This is what wealthy men have always done when faced with angry resentful mobs.

The Medici did this.

The 19th Century Robber Barrons did this.

And there's no reason why the Tech Lords can't do it to.

Because if they made things that people love, they'd make the people love them.

And maybe they could stand their ground and win--even if they're pricks in real life.

My lawyer has asked me to post the following:

Due to the terms of my NDA, I can neither confirm or deny that I have ever been to, or have knowledge of, One Infinite Loop, Cupertino, California 95014, USA. In fact, I cannot confirm (or deny) that this is actual a real place because I have never ever EVER been there.

Thank you for your attention to this matter🙏

I’d thank this guy for proving my point but I blocked him🤷‍♂️

Read 4 tweets

Rambo Van Halen

@RamboVanHalen

May 27, 2025

The Fall (2006) by Tarsem Singh

It's an underrated film, and it might be one of the most visually stunning films ever made. I saw this in the theater, then I immediately bought a ticket for the next screening. Might be the only time that's happened.

I highly recommend.

The locations were all over the world. It's a stunning effect.

Tarsem was a commercial director. He'd take these commercial gigs in beautiful places, then he'd have the crew stay an extra day or two to get the scene for the movie.

Read 11 tweets

Rambo Van Halen

@RamboVanHalen

Apr 27, 2025

https://twitter.com/Chris_arnade/status/1916134430202114298

Yes, Trump has an uncanny ability to produce iconic photos. My friend @kriegmaxxing noted the Trump has an aesthetic sensibility and employs people with similar sensibilities.

This is true, but there's something going on in these photos that's beyond mere aesthetics...

https://twitter.com/Chris_arnade/status/1916134430202114298

This is a photograph of a man who just cheated death. He came within an inch of having his head explode live on CNN. And instead of cowering, or trying to GTFO and scurrying off with his head down (like I would have done), he stopped to raise his fist and shout "fight".

Kudos to Evan Vucci for this perfectly composed photo. But what makes this photo iconic isn't just Vucci's excellent photography (and his bravery for running into the line of fire to get the shot). This photo is great because it's capturing an extraordinary moment.

And this extraordinary moment would not have been possible without the participation of an extraordinary man...

A photograph isn't reality. We make that mistake. When I want to show someone "my kids" I pull out my phone and show them the lock screen which has a picture of my sons. And I say "these are my sons". But it's not "my sons". It's a digital image made when, several years ago when we were on a fishing trip, I pressed a button on my iphone that recored light reflected off my sons for a fraction of a second that was focused thru a lens and captured on a sensor that turned the "image" into code which was then expressed on a digital screen.

This picture is not a pipe. And a photograph is not reality. It's a refection of reality...

Read 12 tweets

Rambo Van Halen

@RamboVanHalen

Apr 14, 2025

My grandfather was born on a farm in the American West.

This was before WW1. No phone, no cars, no electricity, no indoor toilet. He was one of ten kids. Somehow they all made it to adulthood.

He was tapdancer. Worked in Vaudeville (which means he opened for a stripper). That's how he paid for college during the depression. First member of the family to do so.

He was a pilot in the war. Learned to fly, operate radios. Things that barely existed before he was born.

After the war he worked as a stockbroker for a time, but his old boss asked him to come back for the Berlin Airlift. So he joined the US Airforce.

Eventually he went back to school. Got a masters in International Relations. For a time he worked for the NSC in the Eisenhower White House.

Mostly he was stationed in Europe. That's where my mom mostly grew up. Earning US dollars in post-war Europe made for a good lifestyle. Servants, vacations, nice things.

He ended his career flying B-52s. He was a bird colonel.

I became his caretaker at the end of his life. He was 101 years old. His doctors were amazed he was still alive. He kept asking to go home--near the farm where he grew up.

I didn't want him to go--because there was no one there to take care of him. No family. I didn't want to put him in a nursing home in another state.

But he kept insisting. So finally I relented. I found a nursing home that would take him.

He was too frail to do the drive, so we got an air ambulance. It was a little Learjet. I went with him.

The pilots asked if he was a vet. I told them that he was indeed. Told them he was a retired colonel.

Both the pilots were Air Force Reserve. The addressed him as Colonel. Gave him a salute. He was weak but he saluted back.

He had tachycardia by that point. His resting pulse was typically about 130. But as we took off his pulse came down to the 70s. It hadn't been that low in years.

He felt at home in the sky. Flying was something he could only dream about when he was a kid. He was relaxed, and calm, and he slept.

We made it to the nursing home in his home state. I got him settled in his room, met the nurses, then walked down the street to grab a fast food dinner.

I came back an hour later and he was dead. He wanted to come home to die and that's what he did.

Our grandparents lived in a world of what must have been mind-boggling change. But it was also a world of opportunity--where a poor farm kid could grow up to fly jets and have European servants and work in the White House.

That world is gone and it's not coming back. The question is what we will build in it's place.

One day you're a kid working on a farm. Then you're flying a plane over the arctic that has the power to destroy cities. The 20th Century was a crazy place man...

I also think about my wife's grandfather. Born on an orchard in SoCal. Became a machinist. Built aircraft.
Didn't serve during the war because he was deemed too essential (there's a word for that--forget what it is.)

After the war he started working for the space program. He helped build the Apollo Moonlander. Parts that he machined with his own hands are still on the moon. He was very proud of that.

It was a similar trajectory to that of my grandfather, and the same trajectory of American in the 20th Century.

Read 4 tweets

Rambo Van Halen

@RamboVanHalen

Apr 10, 2025

Favorite Woody Allen movies (in no particular order...)

Stardust Memories

Manhattan

Read 19 tweets

Rambo Van Halen

@RamboVanHalen

Feb 25, 2025

This is how fucked the system is...

I get hit by an uninsured illegal. Not only was she uninsured and unlicensed and driving an unregistered vehicle, she was driving like it was her 1st time.

So she hits me, she walks away. The cop gave her a ticket. I asked the cop "how do you know who she really is?"

The cop shrugged, said he has no idea if she is who she really is, and told me he deals with this all day every day. Because we're in a sanctuary county and state there's not a lot he can do.

I have no idea if she paid her reckless driving ticket. There's been no follow up from the DA.

So I got hurt. It could have been worse, but I've been pretty fucked up for the past 14 months or so.

And I've got medical bills. For the ambulance ride, MRIs, PT, follow up appointments, specialists. All the things.

My health insurance won't cover the accident costs, because my auto insurance is supposed to do that. So I submit bills to my (major) auto insurance company.

Then I get a letter, emails, and a text telling me I've reached my coverage limit and to stop submitting bills.

I had uninsured driver coverage, but they claimed I didn't. So I had to get a lawyer.

Now instead of just paying the medical bills, the insurance co will have to pay more for my "pain and suffering". Except... any extra money I collect will not go to me. It will go to my lawyer.

At this point I just want to get reimbursed for my out of pocket costs--which are pretty severe and have stressed my savings. But it's been 14 months and I have yet to see a dime.

My lawyer just wrote up the demand for payment. Every little charge is itemized. The document is 25 pages long + there are hundreds of pages of documentation attached....

If you drive in the USA you might have noticed your auto insurance premiums have gotten really expensive. It's mostly due to cases like mine, where illegal immigrants without insurance decided to play bumper cars on city streets.

You'd think that the insurance companies (who are quite a powerful lobby) would be publicly demanding mass deportations.

But they didn't publicly demand anything. And I'm not sure why exactly (insurance industry followers feel free to chime in).

But I'm sure the fear of being called a racist had something to do with it. And even now that we have a president who's doing something about the problem, they're still silent.

As for me, I'll be fine. But it's been 14 months. I'm out of pocket many tens of thousands of dollars in medical costs. My neck still hurts. I can't lift my arm over my head. And I'm paying way too much for car insurance🤷‍♂️

Oh, and in case you're wondering... yes I could sue the woman who hit me. But no lawyer would take it on contingency. Because she doesn't have anything I can collect.

If the roles were reversed, she'd be suing me and I'd be losing my house right now.

I lost a friend over this too. Lib white woman I've known for a long time. Told her the story of my accident, injuries, financial stuff.

And she did the meme. Was like "Oh that poor thing think of how she must have felt?!"

I corrected her. Told her I was minding my own business and she could have killed me.

But I'm a white man, so it's all my fault...

Read 4 tweets

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