Rambo Van Halen Profile picture
Dec 14 3 tweets 2 min read Read on X
Here's another piece of low-hanging fruit. This encapsulates EVERYTHING that's wrong with Gavin Newsom's California. But who's telling the story?

In case you don't know, California Highway 1 near Big Sur was closed by a landslide in 2023. Due to safetyism, environmental groups, and government incompetence/corruption the road remains closed and the possible opening dates keep shifting. There's really no plan to fix/open the road and the tourist oriented economy along the coast is dying.

The road was built in the early 1920s. Over the years there have been MANY landslides. The road was always fixed and reopened.

But somehow, 100 years later in Gavin Newsom's California, this is impossible. It's as if we've lost the ability to repair roads.

Just like it's impossible to rebuild Paradise or rebuild Pacific Palisades after wild fires. Just like it's impossible to fix the homeless problem. Just like it's impossible to build high speed rail. Just like it's impossible to do ANYTHING of value in California.

Again, this story encapsulates EVERYTHING that's wrong with Gavin Newsom and the Democratic Party.

And nobody is telling this story.

A talented filmmaker could make a nice documentary short for around $50-$100k. It seems like a decent investment, but nobody in big media wants to greenlight projects that make Gavin look bad.

But the people who do have an interest in making Gavin look bad won't put their money where their mouth is.

Because they have no vision.

And they won't fund the people who do.
If Donald Trump was even tangentially responsible for the highway closure--or the fires--or the homeless--or anything else, the Obamas would be throwing MILLIONS at it. Because they UNDERSTAND things about media and power that conservatives don't.
It’s not about the Dems/Libs have a monopoly on media. Media can be bought. Creators can be bought. And nobody is stopping the RW from buying it.

What the Libs have is a monopoly on VISION. Because the RW can’t can’t see it. They can’t even comprehend the opportunities.

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More from @RamboVanHalen

May 27
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.Image
The locations were all over the world. It's a stunning effect. Image
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. Image
Read 11 tweets
Apr 27
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...
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...Image
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...Image
Read 12 tweets
Apr 14
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.Image
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
Apr 10
Favorite Woody Allen movies (in no particular order...) Image
Stardust Memories Image
Manhattan Image
Read 19 tweets
Feb 25
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
Feb 12
Maybe it was all some sort of performance art piece?? Image
I feel like I'm Dorthy waking up back in Kansas.

"It wasn't a dream, it was a place. And you, and you, and you were there." Image
One of these days I'm going to turn on CNN and they'll be like "Fooled you!" and we'll all laugh about how I fell for their silly joke... Image
Read 8 tweets

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