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Cornelius Vanderbilt died in 1877 with $100 million, more money than the U.S. Treasury. In 1973, 120 of his descendants gathered at Vanderbilt University. Not one of them was a millionaire. His great-great-great-grandson is Anderson Cooper. At 14 he was walking up the stairs at home and heard his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, on the phone: "Well, I'll always be able to make money." "I remember stopping and freezing… and thinking: we are doomed." At 13 he'd been telling her to open a savings account. By 14 he was working as a child model. By 1885 the Commodore's son had more than doubled the fortune, to about $230 million. Then the next generation's wives decided to take over New York society. "And then the spending begins." Worked out. $230 million in 1885. Left alone at a plain 5% a year until 1973: about $17 billion. Split 120 ways: about $140 million each. What the 120 actually had: not one had $1 million. Spending only the 5% would have paid the family $11.5 million a year, in 1885 dollars, forever. Keep this part. A fortune doesn't need a thief. It only needs each generation to spend a little more than it earns, and more heirs to split what's left. Gloria inherited what remained, then made her own money with jeans. Anderson's parents made sure he knew: "There wasn't some pot of gold waiting for me, and I'm glad." The clip is three minutes. Watch him on the stairs, then decide. You have $100 million and one child. How much do you leave them?

Liberal Richard from Syracuse here was walking past a Tundra truck in a Winn Dixie parking lot in Stock Island FL and didn’t like the let’s go Brandon sticker on it so he keyed it. Bad news for Richard it was all caught on video, and the owner is pressing charges. Here is the cop confronting, and arresting him. Apparently, he did about $6000 worth of damage which makes it a felony. Sometimes they do get caught and it’s wonderful! 62 year old man should know better. What an A$$!!

Every Texas bar has that one guy. He’s loud. He’s obnoxious. He makes all the women feel uncomfortable. He adds his drink to your tab when you’re not looking. That’s Ken Paxton — and I don’t know about y’all, but I’m done picking up his tab.

I guess I'm old-fashioned, but I think it should be a bigger story that the eldest son of the President of the United States is vacationing with corrupt Russian oligarchs.

So not only did a Russian Oligarch connected to Putin pay for Don Jr.s wedding party- they went on a Mongolian honeymoon hunting trip together too. I chose a more traditional family values honeymoon in Hawaii with my wife. (08/26/19)

Wtf is going on???

Yesterday I posted a statement from @WillieNelson and #FreeMajor. I knew more—but sometimes helping a dog means NOT posting what you know. I met attorney @ChristinaMaccio when she took on the Snuggles case. I had been helping Snuggles' mom, researching the law, animal-welfare issues, and building an organized Google Drive of materials for her future legal counsel to use as they saw fit. So when Major came onto my radar, sadly I knew enough to recognize what I was looking at. First let me introduce you to Major Lilly — and explain why his case goes far beyond one dog. Note: It is considerably shortened. You can read more on Instagram on @TheTRAPRS page. 🐶 Major is a Belgian Malinois who has been held by the City of Austin since March 31, 2025—which was DAY ONE. ➡️ As of today, he has been held 528 DAYS. Sound familiar? Major's owner, Shane Lilly, has a disability and Major assists him with disability-related tasks that if you know how hard this is to accomplish, is irreplaceable. On May 31, 2025, Major was hit by a vehicle and was injured. Shane was on foot and didn't have a way to get to an emergency vet and didn't have his phone. He went to go get help. Major was limping and yelping when two women attempted to corral him out of traffic. One of them was bitten and had to go to the hospital to be treated. She was treated and released the same day. Austin Animal Control's (AAC) investigator documented it as a “provoked bite” — meaning Major was reacting to the circumstances, not attacking without cause. According to records, AAC initially told him he could take Major home. Shane asked them to keep Major because Major was injured and Shane did not have the resources at that moment to get him the veterinary treatment he needed. ➡️ On April 9, Austin obtained a seizure warrant under Texas Health & Safety Code Chapter 822. The ACO affidavit stated something Shane emphatically disputes: it said Shane told her this was the sixth person Major had bitten, and we have supported that by finding no record showing Major had ever bitten or seriously injured anyone before March 31. The woman who was bitten didn’t even testify because she didn’t want Major to be hurt. ➡️ Despite that, on April 15, Austin Municipal Court ordered Major destroyed. Shane appealed. A Travis County court held a new hearing in July 2025 and again ordered Major destroyed. Shane kept appealing. The Third Court of Appeals affirmed the order in February. The Texas Supreme Court declined review, and the state appellate process reached its end. Shane had no other way to save Major. Last Friday, AAC emailed Shane and gave him an appointment for 9:00am September 11 — for his final visit with Major. (The irony of the date Austin chose does not escape me. ⁉️) ➡️ This is where my involvement in Major's case began. Christina brought the litigation expertise; I brought what I had learned from years in animal welfare and from living inside these cases, and my quest to find the common thread in them around the country. Christina and I spent hours collaborating on what we found on the case and I knew she had the brilliance and expertise he needed and she wanted to see if she could possibly help. We needed to speak with Shane, but neither of us knew him. So I went looking. I worked backward through social media—posts, comments, names, connections—trying to figure out who actually knew something and who might lead me to Shane. After days of digging, I got a lead and was connected with Caitlin at @TheTRAPRS, who had been helping Shane for a couple weeks. Caitlin’s side had the connection—and our side had the brilliant lawyer that was willing to step up. We all got on the phone, Christina took the case, and she got busy. ⚖️ Yesterday, Christina filed a federal civil-rights action on behalf of Shane Lilly in the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, along with an emergency request to stop the City of Austin from euthanizing Major, called a TRO. ➡️ Today, U.S. District Judge David Alan Ezra granted the Temporary Restraining Order (TRO). 🙌 Major is safe. The order itself is sealed for now, so I cannot discuss its contents. If anyone tells you they know, his counsel would like to have a word. This is not the end of Major’s case. The TRO will keep Major alive long enough for the federal issues to be heard. So more updates are coming. Christina worked under EXTREME time pressure. I am awe struck at the precision in which she filed, and how brilliantly and accurately she answered hard questions the judge gave her. She did all this in THREE DAYS. Judge Ezra and his staff were also handed a genuinely difficult federal case on an emergency timetable and gave it immediate consideration and a quick decision. That needs to be said. And so does her name—@ChristinaMaccio. 🙌 There is a much bigger story here about Major, Atlas, Snuggles, the lawyers and experts these cases desperately need, and why we cannot continue fighting these cases one dog at a time. 🐶❤️ But today belongs to Major and Shane, thanks to @ChristinaMaccio, the attorney who made sure for Major, there would still BE a tomorrow. #FreeMajor *Video courtesy of Caitlin/@TheTRAPRS.

What famous person was born in your birthday month/year?

Hugh Hefner’s widow, Crystal, accuses late Playboy founder of rape, incest as she details horrific sex acts trib.al/bKZyMIz

United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres said on Monday that he is “deeply alarmed” over Israeli settler expansion and ongoing violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, warning about the risk of ethnic cleansing.