Will Stone

Hiking. Mountain Biking. Camping. Backpacking.
Conservative politics.
Patriot.
Follower of Jesus Christ.

[Will Stone @Liveforoutdoor]

@Breaking911 https://t.co/8eFHLqXFQK

[Will Stone @Liveforoutdoor]

Democrats really look dumb on this one. The White House ballroom expected completion is September 2028. Exactly 4 months before Trump leaves office, you can't tell me he is building it for himself. Even if he names it after himself, Democrats can change the name when they get in power. So what is he really doing it for? I'll tell you why, for the next presidents and for the United States of America.

[Will Stone @Liveforoutdoor]

@LeadingReport Sorry it wasn't just Biden.

[Will Stone @Liveforoutdoor]

@TedJones691885 @Breaking911 I think you mean Blancolirio and I agree he really gives the no judgement assessment of what happened in these aviation incidents.

[Rothmus 🏴 @Rothmus]

Socialists are attacking capital accumulation again.

Yet another good example of why socialist economies always end in destitution.

But the thing is that poor countries stay poor because their people and governments eat their capital instead of building it.
Nations get rich by accumulating capital goods.

A US construction worker earns many times what one doing the same job elsewhere makes because America accumulated the tools and machines that multiply what one hour of labor produces.

Catch fish by hand and you eat today, or go without for a stretch while you build a net and you feed yourself for years after.
But that net only appears when an entire economy chooses to save and invest instead of consume.

Capital accumulation is good, actually. That’s why they hate it.

[Will Stone @Liveforoutdoor]

A tax is a burden on society. Government does not create wealth they take the wealth others created. Taking the wealth does not improve poor people's situations. See California spending on homelessness.

[Yogi @Houseofyogi]

Ro Khanna’s solution to taxing illiquid billionaire founders is so stupid it sounds like satire.

Say you founded a private company valued at $5 billion.

You do not have $5 billion (surprise).

You own shares that might eventually be worth $20 billion, $500 million or zero.

Government says congrats, pay up.

You say, “Cool, except I don’t have the cash.”

Ro’s fix? Pledge the shares to the government and borrow the money to pay the government.

This idea is absolutely bonkers.

The government decides what your private company is worth, taxes you based on its estimate, lends you money against it, and then takes the money back as taxes.

You now have debt against the government for imaginary taxes and if you don't pay you forfeit and the own a share of your company.

The government is now an appraiser, bank, creditor, tax collector and shareholder. Maybe we can fund more Learing Centers (I digress).

AND...it gets even dumber.

Under current federal tax rules, absent some special exemption, handing over collateral to satisfy nonrecourse debt is generally treated as a sale, which means another tax.

So California lends you $250M against startup shares so you can pay California its wealth tax. Ten years later the company is toast. You can lose your company, lose your shares and still owe taxes on money you never had.

And who exactly is valuing all of this?

Professional investors struggle to value private companies when they have data rooms, preferred terms, board access and actual money on the line.

Now government is supposed to put an annual mark on founder common and tax it?

A $10B preferred financing round does not mean founder common can actually be sold at that valuation. Different share classes exist. Liquidation preferences exist. Dilution exists. Secondary discounts exist. Sometimes there isn’t a buyer at any remotely comparable price.

So how do you solve this @RoKhanna?

We already know how wrong these marks can be. Roughly 67% of unicorns that IPO’d in 2025 priced below their last private valuation.

Yet somehow government is going to know the “correct” value every year.

You take the risk. You quit the job. You work for years. You take dilution. Most startups fail and your shares go to zero.

Government doesn’t share that downside.

Then policymakers look backward at Bezos, Zuckerberg, Musk and Jensen, the handful of guys who actually won, and use them to rewrite the economics for every kid deciding whether to take the same swing.

Heads, the company dies and government says “no crying in the casino.”

Tails, you actually win and suddenly you’re an evil tech billionaire who owes government 5% of the paper mark every year.

GGs.

Ro has to defend the moronic economics. Bernie’s job is to make sure you’re too angry to examine them.

“Fair share.” “Billionaire class.” “The rich.”

Instead of asking whether taxing unrealized ownership makes sense, Bernie changes the question to whether billionaires have too much money.

Don’t discuss liquidity. Show the mansion.

Don’t discuss valuation or incentives. Show the yacht.

That is class warfare.

And it matters before the company even exists.

Nobody knew Bezos would become Bezos when he started Amazon.

Nobody knew Facebook would become Meta.

Nobody knew Nvidia would become the most important chip company in the world.

Policy written around the winners changes the economics for the next generation of potential founders.

You aren’t only taxing Zuckerberg after Facebook worked. You’re changing the math for the 24 yr old kid deciding whether to spend the next decade trying to build the next one.

America works partly because ambitious people from all over the world come here believing the upside is worth the risk.

Leave the comfortable job. Start something. Raise money. Fail. Try again.

And if it finally works, own a meaningful piece of what you created.

If the new deal becomes “you eat all the downside, but if your paper equity gets big enough we start taking 5% every year,” don’t act shocked when some people stop taking the risk or take it somewhere else.

Bernie and Ro love showing you the lifestyle and telling you what they deem “excessive” wealth. What they rarely show is everything sitting underneath it.

Take Bezos.

Show his net worth going up $20B and ask why one guy needs all that money.

Alright champ, let’s zoom out.

Amazon employs more than 1 million people in the United States. Independent sellers using Amazon support more than 2 million U.S. jobs and paid more than $100B in wages in 2024.

So before you even get to Bezos’ personal tax return, millions of people are earning money because this company exists.

Those wages generate income taxes and payroll taxes.

Amazon’s sales generate sales-tax revenue.

Amazon itself pays corporate income taxes, employer payroll taxes and state and local taxes.

In 2025 Amazon reported roughly $12.4B of federal income-tax expense, $7.9B of federal employer payroll and other taxes and fees, and $7.5B of state and local taxes.

Then there’s another $24.8B collected and remitted on behalf of employees and $33.4B in sales taxes.

Roughly $86B moved through those reported tax categories in one year.

Did Amazon itself economically bear all $86B? Obviously not.

Customers pay sales tax. Employees pay their withholding.

That's how this all works. The company created the jobs, wages and transactions that created the tax base.

Bernie wants you staring at Bezos’ personal tax return as though none of that exists.

The million-plus employees, sellers, suppliers, truck drivers, warehouses, contractors, construction crews, software companies and retirement accounts all disappear.

And quick reminder: Bezos getting $10B richer because Amazon had a good day in the market does not mean $10B landed in his bank account. The market repriced stock he already owned.

When he actually sells appreciated shares, that generally creates a capital-gains tax bill.

Jensen Huang got insanely rich because Nvidia became insanely valuable.

Nvidia also employs roughly 42,000 people, around 31,000 in R&D, and paid more than $20 BILLION in cash income taxes in its latest fiscal year.

Nearly $17B went to the federal government alone.

It also reported roughly $7.9B in taxes tied to employee stock plans.

So Jensen got richer. Shareholders got richer. Employees got richer. Government collected billions.

All four things can be true at once.

Meta spent more than $72B on capex in 2025. That money went into chips, data centers, power, construction, engineers and contractors.

Not Zuckerberg’s checking account.

A lot of people make money when successful companies make money.

That story just sucks for class warfare. It is much easier to show the billionaire’s net worth and pretend his gain was everyone else’s loss.

And federally Sanders and Khanna want to do this every year.

A 5% annual tax on wealth.

So forget the valuation mess for a second and just run the math.

Your assets make 8% and government takes 5% of the asset value?

That 5% tax just ate 62.5% of your 8% gross return, before income or capital-gains taxes.

Make 5%? Your entire nominal return is gone.

Make 3%? You’re selling principal to pay the tax.

Obviously people react to that. Investors demand more return, founders rethink where they live and capital goes looking for better economics.

Which is a bizarre experiment to run when America is already winning on startups and innovation.

The U.S. has roughly 950 private unicorns and produced more than half of the world’s new unicorns in the first half of 2026.

California attracted roughly $191B of venture investment in 2025, ~60% of the U.S. total.

Other countries spend decades trying to manufacture this ecosystem. Startup visas, tax incentives, special programs, anything to attract founders and capital.

We already have it. Maybe don’t fuck it up.

Bernie calls it “fairness.” Fine. Define fair @BernieSanders

The top 1% earned roughly 21% of U.S. adjusted gross income in 2023 and paid roughly 38% of federal individual income taxes, about $823B.

Washington spends $6.28T, annually, and already has a $1.8T deficit through July.

I don't think you need more money.

Before inventing another tax base, maybe explain where the money already goes and what outcomes we're getting for it.

California spent nearly $24B on homelessness and nothing got better. Billions lost to medicare fraud. There is reported $200-400B of what we know lost to it each year.

Not sure giving the government more money, especially California is a good idea.

But taking another dollar out of productive private capital does not magically make that dollar better allocated.

Other developed countries have already wrestled with this too.

The number of OECD countries with individual net wealth taxes fell from 12 in 1990 to 4 by 2017.

Maybe they all got captured by billionaires. Or maybe they learned something.

Valuing private assets is messy. Liquidity matters. Capital moves. People move. Incentives matter.

Tax income. Tax realized gains. Close actual loopholes. Audit the stuff you already spend.

America became the world’s innovation engine because people came here, took huge risks, raised capital, built companies and owned the upside when it worked.

You want more people making that bet.

Not fewer.

Be very careful messing with that machine, especially when the people asking for more of the capital are already almost $40T in debt.

“He can afford it” is not economics.

“Fair share” means nothing until you define it.

And envy is a terrible tax policy.

[Anna Paulina Luna @realannapaulina]

The @SecRubio effect. Once he cut off the corrupt USAID slush funds, look what happened:

June 2023:
🔴Left wing: 10
🔵Right wing: 3

June 2026:
🔵Right wing: 7 (+4)
🔴Left wing: 6 (-4)

[KanekoaTheGreat @KanekoaTheGreat]

🚨NEW: Hurricane Lala is pounding Hawaii's Big Island, leaving more than 60,000 residents without power.

The governor has confirmed one death.

The Category 1 hurricane’s core scraped the southern tip of the island, but its eye ultimately passed just offshore, narrowly avoiding what would have been the Big Island’s first hurricane landfall in 155 years.

Volcanoes National Park has taken over 20 inches of rain. Mauna Kea clocked a 140 mph gust.

Maui, Oahu and Kauai remain under tropical storm warnings as Lala tracks south-west.

This is Hilo’s Rainbow Falls today compared to a normal day.

[middleclassparty @middle_class_us]

Fast food companies are learning a very expensive lesson: The middle class has a breaking point.

They got tired of paying restaurant prices for food that was literally created to be cheap.

Fast food was the exhausted parent's dinner.

The construction worker's lunch.

The cheap meal after your kid's soccer game.

The road trip stop when you didn't want to spend $60 feeding the family.

Then corporations raised prices, cut portions, reduced quality and told everyone to download an app if they wanted the old price.

Now customers are walking away.

Good.

Fast food forgot what business it was in.

The middle class is reminding them.

[Will Stone @Liveforoutdoor]

@Maddere7 @Breaking911 It's pretty reliable. No chance of pedestrians 😂 since the cars are all doing 80mph. And vehicles slow down and get out of the way usually when cops with lights and sirens drive past.

[Will Stone @Liveforoutdoor]

@theresa00339388 @GuntherEagleman People started taking about it when it got blocked by a stupid liberal judge. You really think he is doing it for himself? To enjoy it for 4 months? That's a stretch.

[Will Stone @Liveforoutdoor]

Democrats really look dumb on this one. The White House ballroom expected completion is September 2028. Exactly 4 months before Trump leaves office, you can't tell me he is building it for himself. Even if he names it after himself, Democrats can change the name when they get in power. So what is he really doing it for? I'll tell you why, for the next presidents and for the United States of America.

[Will Stone @Liveforoutdoor]

Concentrating great power in few people through regulation is a bad idea. See communism examples...

[Gavin Baker @GavinSBaker]

Sholto, thank you for setting the record straight. Larger issue is that multiple very serious people in Silicon Valley have heard some variation of this and believe it to be true. And the reason it is believable to so many is that it is consistent with Dario’s public messaging and what he outlined in the essay you shared: this technology *might* be dangerous for humans in multiple ways, could lead to extreme concentration of economic power (as outlined in the essay) and therefore needs to be regulated thoughtfully. I agree with the potential risks and I believe Dario makes all of these arguments in good faith.

As discussed on the pod, if one agrees that AI *might* be dangerous, there are two ways to address this potential risk. Either concentrate it in the hands of a chosen few companies and politicians via regulation or distribute it widely. Essentially boils down to whether one believes AI is too dangerous to concentrate or too dangerous to distribute. There are reasonable arguments on both sides, but I profoundly agree with Zuckerberg’s statement that: “The notion that AI is so dangerous that the only safe path is an extreme concentration of power seems inherently problematic. Historically, hoping that an absolute power will benevolently provide for humanity if sufficiently enlightened has not led to safe or positive outcomes.” And as Dario says in the aforementioned essay, “some may object that we can simply keep AIs in check with a balance of power between many AI systems, as we do with humans.” I believe this is the best path forward: I want as many AIs as possible to maximize the odds that one shares my own particular values. And as Dario notes, no human has ever been able to take over the world.

At this point, I think safe to say that Dario has lost the argument. His messaging has failed to result in his preferred regulatory path. The fact that the only solution to the recent incident where an unreleased advanced OpenAI model hacked Hugging Face was an open-source model likely ended any chance of strict near-term regulation. Essentially every major company other than Anthropic has signed Jensen’s letter.

However, Dario’s messaging has been massively helpful to efforts to ban datacenters here in America. I suspect we will see anti-datacenter advocacy groups runnings ads using clips of Dario warning about how dangerous AI could be for humans. His good faith efforts in favor of regulation are now increasing the odds that AI will not be beneficial for Americans and humans everywhere. I believe that there is a reasonable chance AI might help us cure most forms of disease such that we have extended lifespans and can enjoy these long lives in an abundant Star Trek like future. That is the future that I want and I think Dario is decreasing the odds of that future at this point.

He is about to be the CEO of one of the most important public companies in the world and given that the pro-regulatory effort has failed (at least for now), I respectfully think he should make an effort to be a more positive advocate for his own industry. And if I am wrong and we do need to regulate this technology, he will be a more effective advocate for this in the future having been open-minded to the alternative.

And for the sake of clarity and as I outlined on the pod, I think Anthropic has deep competitive advantages and is an amazing company. Ironically, the main risk I saw to Anthropic a few months ago was nationalization as a result of Dario’s own rhetoric and behavior.

[Gavin Baker @GavinSBaker]

Sholto, thank you for setting the record straight. Larger issue is that multiple very serious people in Silicon Valley have heard some variation of this and believe it to be true. And the reason it is believable to so many is that it is consistent with Dario’s public messaging and what he outlined in the essay you shared: this technology *might* be dangerous for humans in multiple ways, could lead to extreme concentration of economic power (as outlined in the essay) and therefore needs to be regulated thoughtfully. I agree with the potential risks and I believe Dario makes all of these arguments in good faith.

As discussed on the pod, if one agrees that AI *might* be dangerous, there are two ways to address this potential risk. Either concentrate it in the hands of a chosen few companies and politicians via regulation or distribute it widely. Essentially boils down to whether one believes AI is too dangerous to concentrate or too dangerous to distribute. There are reasonable arguments on both sides, but I profoundly agree with Zuckerberg’s statement that: “The notion that AI is so dangerous that the only safe path is an extreme concentration of power seems inherently problematic. Historically, hoping that an absolute power will benevolently provide for humanity if sufficiently enlightened has not led to safe or positive outcomes.” And as Dario says in the aforementioned essay, “some may object that we can simply keep AIs in check with a balance of power between many AI systems, as we do with humans.” I believe this is the best path forward: I want as many AIs as possible to maximize the odds that one shares my own particular values. And as Dario notes, no human has ever been able to take over the world.

At this point, I think safe to say that Dario has lost the argument. His messaging has failed to result in his preferred regulatory path. The fact that the only solution to the recent incident where an unreleased advanced OpenAI model hacked Hugging Face was an open-source model likely ended any chance of strict near-term regulation. Essentially every major company other than Anthropic has signed Jensen’s letter.

However, Dario’s messaging has been massively helpful to efforts to ban datacenters here in America. I suspect we will see anti-datacenter advocacy groups runnings ads using clips of Dario warning about how dangerous AI could be for humans. His good faith efforts in favor of regulation are now increasing the odds that AI will not be beneficial for Americans and humans everywhere. I believe that there is a reasonable chance AI might help us cure most forms of disease such that we have extended lifespans and can enjoy these long lives in an abundant Star Trek like future. That is the future that I want and I think Dario is decreasing the odds of that future at this point.

He is about to be the CEO of one of the most important public companies in the world and given that the pro-regulatory effort has failed (at least for now), I respectfully think he should make an effort to be a more positive advocate for his own industry. And if I am wrong and we do need to regulate this technology, he will be a more effective advocate for this in the future having been open-minded to the alternative.

And for the sake of clarity and as I outlined on the pod, I think Anthropic has deep competitive advantages and is an amazing company. Ironically, the main risk I saw to Anthropic a few months ago was nationalization as a result of Dario’s own rhetoric and behavior.

[Will Stone @Liveforoutdoor]

@Breaking911 What's the max fording depth of an Amazon delivery van? 😂

[Will Stone @Liveforoutdoor]

@LeadingReport Time to pass the torch.

[Will Stone @Liveforoutdoor]

@Breaking911 And that's why the Salt Lake Utah LDS temple is getting all the foundation work done... To prevent earthquake damage.

[Eric Daugherty @EricLDaugh]

🚨 BREAKING: Sen. Ashley Moody (R-FL) just RUSHED to the Senate floor and ERUPTED to pass the SAVE America Act, supporting no recess until it's done

"I am DUMBFOUNDED that I still have to come to the floor and have this debate with ANYBODY in this CHAMBER!"

"PUT IT UP FOR A VOTE!" 🔥🔥

"That is the ONLY WAY to ensure people have confidence in the legitimacy of the results of our elections!"

"I'm here today to make sure that happens. Our great American experiment hinges on the sanctity and integrity of our elections!"

LFG, @AshleyMoodyFL @BasedMikeLee 🇺🇸

[Rob Henderson @robkhenderson]

Did you know if you demoralize the populace, dismiss the importance of law enforcement, and reduce spending on police, people will give up on calling the cops and the statistics will then indicate crime is down and you can declare victory? A neat trick. https://t.co/UjJN7QTgca

[Will Stone @Liveforoutdoor]

@Breaking911 60% lost through leaks? What? They can't fix a water line?

[Will Stone @Liveforoutdoor]

@Breaking911 Side of the road is not the place to plead your case.