Dan Foehner

Endurance athlete, outdoor enthusiast, proud Dad, globetrotter, investor, former Tech executive at Meta and Yahoo!.

[The All-In Podcast @theallinpod]

David Friedberg: California’s Voting System Looks Fraudulent, But It’s Working Exactly as Designed

@friedberg believes California’s extremely loose election laws enable “appointments” not free elections.

Why? The voting data in LA makes no statistical sense.

“ Pratt's post-election mail-in ballots declined by 1/3.

So statistically, the population of people that send in their ballots late reduced for Pratt by 1/3, increased for Nithya Raman by 80%, and Karen Bass 10% less, if you just look at the mail-in ballots before and after election day as a comparison.

I don't know if there's a sociopolitical way that you can assess those statistics and assume that these are individuals casting their individual vote for who they think should be Mayor of LA.

Basically, the concentration of incremental votes that Nithya Raman got came around the Skid Row area in Los Angeles.

But when you look at the basic statistics of what happened in person, mail-in before, mail-in after Election Day, it becomes a real statistical quagmire on how did this sort of a sociopolitical shift happen in such a way that it did?

Now, there was a report published, and they highlighted the 2018 California midterm elections and the challenges that they saw arise in that midterm election because of some of the legislative changes that were made.

First, California Assembly Bill 1921 legalized the practice of unlimited ballot harvesting in the state. What that means is that any individual in the state of California has the right to go and collect ballots from any other individuals, regardless of relationship, fill them out, and send them in.

California, two years later, 18 months later, also passed a law that made it permanent that every person registered in the state of California would get a ballot, so tens of millions of ballots then get mailed out.

Then there was another series of laws that were passed that said anyone can register to vote. You don't need to prove your citizenship. You can use a gym membership card as an example.

So anyone can register to vote. There is no proof of ID when you get a ballot. There is no demonstration that the person who fills out the ballot has anything to do with the individual who's supposed to be voting that ballot, and it is legal for an individual to go out and collect hundreds or thousands of ballots, ship them in, and they will all qualify in these kind of mail-in ballot voting processes.

So there's nothing illegal or fraudulent going on. In fact, the system is operating exactly as intended.

It has been set up and structured in a way that with the right construct, you can get an individual appointed, not elected, but appointed to a particular role in government under a, quote, ‘free election’ in California.”

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

The level of fraud here is mind-blowing

[End Wokeness @EndWokeness]

IT BEGINS…

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani unveils plan to "transfer ownership" from landlords to "the community"

[Austin Justice @AustinJustice]

In Austin, you can walk your dogs on a quiet Sunday morning and get randomly shot.

"I don't know why they would shoot me." Sean Fuentes keeps repeating it from his hospital bed.

A car ran a stop sign in southeast Austin and three men opened fire. The first shot dropped him, and he felt the rest hitting the dirt next to his face as the shooters stayed and emptied the clip trying to execute him. Bear crawling home, he heard his late father's voice -- a Marine who served two tours in Vietnam: "It's go time." He crawled and walked a block and a half home bleeding. His wife saw the dogs running back alone, leashes dragging.

Three teenagers stole a 9mm Glock from a shop on Ben White, took a stolen car, and spent the weekend firing into homes, vehicles, and strangers across Austin. 105 rounds across 21 incidents with four people shot.

Sean’s twin sister is in the ICU waiting room with him, and wants justice: "They stayed there and shot him multiple times and then watched him. Like, you're watching somebody die.... I want to see them prosecuted to the full extent. They should be tried as adults."

[Austin Justice @AustinJustice]

AUSTIN MAN sprints across UT campus naked chasing female joggers, stops to masturbate in a parking lot beside the LBJ Library, then hides in a port-a-potty as officers arrive.

Patrick Sweeney once slipped inside police headquarters and pedaled off on a marked patrol bike.

The JW Marriott has banned him three separate times, including for sleeping shirtless on their couch, but he is never prosecuted for trespassing.

He was also caught climbing the Governor's Mansion fence, while still wearing the hospital wristband from his most recent release.

Last week, he was arrested for the 44th time, this time at Target across from UT campus. He was charged with felony theft, indecent exposure, drug paraphernalia, and public intoxication.

Every felony either declined or reduced. Every misdemeanor pled to time served.

44 arrests. 24 formal charges. 0 jury trials.

[@jason @Jason]

They updated the most legendary chart on twitter

What stands out?

[Libs of TikTok @libsoftiktok]

AOC on the new Tennessee Congressional map which would eliminate the last Democrat seat:

“States like Tennessee want to wipe out every Black Representative”

The current Democrat Rep is a White guy and his Republican opponent is a Black woman.

Can’t make this up

[Phil Labonte 🇺🇸 @philthatremains]

maybe women athletes should be paid MORE than men because the point of sports is entertainment and this is entertaining as hell. 😂

[Stephen Moore @StephenMoore]

The biggest wealth transfer in American history isn’t happening on Wall Street. It’s happening on U-Hauls.

Over $2 trillion in income fled high-tax blue states for low-tax red states in just 11 years.

And blue states’ solution? Raise taxes again.

[Rand Paul @RandPaul]

The DOJ has ONE WEEK left to charge Anthony Fauci for the worst cover-up in modern medical history.

He lied to Congress about funding gain-of-function research in Wuhan. Millions died. Trillions were spent. And Fauci walked away with book deals and fawning media coverage instead of handcuffs. I re-upped my criminal referral to the DOJ because the evidence is overwhelming, and justice has been delayed long enough.

RT if you’re ready to see Fauci behind bars.

[Joseph Hernandez @hernandezforny]

Ken Griffin is the American story.

A kid trading out of a dorm room, who went on to build Citadel LLC into a global powerhouse.

He didn’t inherit it. He built it. Took risk. Won.

And what’s the result?

More than 2,500 jobs in New York City. Over $2.3 billion in taxes paid to New York. Over $650 million in philanthropic contributions tied to this city. Thousands more jobs coming from major development projects.

That’s not rhetoric. That’s impact.

But instead of learning from that success, some politicians would rather demonize it.

Because tearing people down is easier than building anything yourself.

So let’s be very real:

If Ken Griffin and firms like his leave New York… who replaces 2,500 high-paying jobs? Who replaces billions in tax revenue? Who funds the services you claim to care about?

A government-run grocery store?

That’s not economic policy. That’s fantasy.

And to @ZohranKMamdani

What have you actually built? How many jobs have you created? How many people depend on you for a paycheck? What real risk have you ever taken?

We need builders. Not people who attack them.

[Libs of TikTok @libsoftiktok]

This is what an invasion looks like

[ATX data @data_atx]

BREAKING: The project connect team is planning a $32 million office lease in one of the most luxury waterfront towers in downtown Austin plus an extra $15 million to build out and furnish the space

Totally ridiculous. They could run this out of the existing capmetro office

[Steven Fiorillo @stevenfiorillo]

My post on Friday regarding the estate tax proposal in New York got 600,000+ views, so clearly this struck a nerve. Some individuals asked me to back up what I said so I am going to discuss what happens when states push tax policy past the breaking point. Here is what the data shows and it’s worse than most people realize. According to IRS migration data, New York has lost $111 billion in net adjusted gross income over the last decade from residents moving to other states. That’s not hypothetical, that’s $111 billion in taxable income that used to fund schools, subways, police, and infrastructure that is now funding those things in Florida and Texas rather than New York. California lost $102 billion over the same period. Florida gained $196 billion. Texas gained $54 billion. That’s not a coincidence, it’s a pattern.

Between 2018 and 2024, 561 companies relocated their headquarters across the country. The San Francisco Bay Area lost 156 corporate headquarters. Los Angeles lost 106. New York City lost 27. Meanwhile Dallas alone gained 100, Austin gained 81, and Nashville gained 35. This didn’t come to a halt in 2025 or 2026. Palantir $PLTR which was the largest publicly traded company in Colorado, announced in February that it was moving its headquarters from Denver to Miami. It was PLTR’s second move in six years after leaving Silicon Valley in 2020. The governor of Colorado said he found out through a social media post. ExxonMobil’s $XOM board unanimously recommended that shareholders approve reincorporating the company from New Jersey to Texas after 144 years at the vote in May. Exxon has physically operated out of Texas since 1989, and its CEO said Texas has created a policy environment that allows them to maximize shareholder value. Chevron $CVX completed its move from California to Houston. In-N-Out Burger is opening a 100,000-square-foot eastern headquarters near Nashville and is leaving California. These aren’t outliers anymore as this is becoming the new normal.

It’s not just corporate headquarters moving. Entire financial ecosystems are relocating. Citadel, one of the most profitable hedge funds in the world, moved its headquarters from Chicago to Miami in 2022 and has been building out aggressively ever since. They’re constructing a massive new waterfront headquarters in Miami’s Brickell financial district. Elliott Management moved to West Palm Beach. Carl Icahn moved Icahn Enterprises from New York to Sunny Isles Beach. Cathie Wood’s ARK Investment Management relocated to St. Petersburg. Goldman Sachs $GS is building a $500 million campus in Dallas designed to house over 5,000 employees. JPMorgan Chase $JPM and Wells Fargo $WFC have both invested hundreds of millions into massive new campuses in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Wells Fargo is also moving its wealth management division from San Francisco to West Palm Beach. NYSE Texas a reincorporation of the 143-year old Chicago Stock Exchange officially launched in Dallas in early 2025. The Texas Stock Exchange which is a brand new national securities exchange backed by over $160 million from BlackRock $BLK , Citadel Securities, and Charles Schwab $SCHW is set to begin trading by the end of this year. Nasdaq has also expanded its Texas presence with operations in Irving.

When you have that level of financial infrastructure being built in a single metro area, that’s not a trend it’s an ecosystem being constructed from scratch to compete directly with New York. Each of these moves represents not just a company but thousands of high-paying jobs, billions in local economic activity, and a signal to every other firm still on the fence that states with competitive rather than restrictive policy are creating enticing operating environments.

Currently over 1 million residents have left New York for other states since 2020 according to the latest Census estimates. International immigration has partially offset the population headcount, but it hasn’t replaced the tax base. The people leaving earn significantly more on average than the people arriving. Almost 1,700 millionaires changed their address out of New York in 2024 alone. Millionaires paid 44.6% of all personal income tax collected in the state last year. The proposed response to this fragility is to drop the estate tax threshold from $7.1 million to $750,000, raise the top rate to 50%, add a new 2% income tax surcharge on millionaires, increase corporate taxes, and add a capital gains surcharge. Under these proposals, the combined federal, state, and city top marginal rate on high earners in New York City would approach 54%. That’s a policy framework that ignores everything the last decade of data has told us.

The Dallas mayor just publicly predicted an “avalanche” of NYC financial firms heading to Texas under these policies. Florida realtors are seeing a surge of inquiries from wealthy New Yorkers. Cities like Miami, Austin, and Nashville are building entire ecosystems including schools, cultural centers, and financial services clusters which are designed specifically to attract the people New York is pushing out. Ken Griffin and Stephen Ross just launched a $10 million campaign called “Ambitious Accelerated” to recruit more businesses to what they’re calling Florida’s “Tech Gold Coast.” They’re not waiting for New York to figure it out. They’re actively recruiting our talent, our capital, and our tax base.

That’s what makes this moment so critical. We are in the middle of the most competitive environment for jobs, businesses, and investment that this country has ever seen. States are actively building infrastructure to attract employers and high earners. This is the time to compete, not to double down on the same policy approach that has been pushing wealth and businesses to lower-tax states for a decade. Texas entered its latest legislative session with a $24 billion surplus while having no personal or corporate income tax. Think about that for a moment, no personal or corporate income tax and they have a $24 billion surplus. Florida added more new businesses than any other state in 2024, with over 266,000 formed in a single year. These states didn’t create an attractive business landscape out of thin air. They made deliberate policy choices to create environments where businesses want to operate, where employers want to hire, and where working people can actually build something without the ground shifting underneath them every budget cycle.

This matters because of what it means for everyday people. When a company relocates its headquarters, it doesn’t just move a sign, the entire company leaves, from the executive team to the support staff. It doesn’t stop there because that's only internal. Externally, all of the trades that may do work for the company will no longer receive those phone calls. The restaurants will no longer see those repeat customers. The tax revenue from those paychecks won’t be collected, and future job growth in the community from that company will cease to exist. When Dallas gained 100 corporate headquarters over six years, that meant tens of thousands of new jobs, new residents spending money, new homes being purchased, new small businesses opening to serve those people. That’s how local economies actually grow. That’s how neighborhoods stay alive, and when a corporate headquarters leaves a city, the exact opposite happens. The jobs thin out, the spending dries up, the small businesses that depended on that foot traffic start closing, and the tax base that funded public services shrinks.

New York has every natural advantage in the world. The talent, infrastructure, culture, and institutions are all here, but it won’t be enough if the policy environment drives away the employers and investors who create opportunities for everyone else. The states that are growing right now aren’t growing by accident. They made a decision to be competitive. They kept tax burdens manageable, they created regulatory clarity for businesses, and they built an environment where employers want to expand and hire. New York has every tool to do the same thing. The question is whether the people making the decisions recognize that we’re in a competition and right now, we’re not acting like it.

Here’s the part nobody in Albany wants to hear. The people who leave don’t just take their tax returns with them. They take their fundraising networks, philanthropy, job creation, and spending to a new economy. A city that once attracted the world’s most ambitious people risks becoming a place they leave once they’ve made it, or worse, a place they never lay down roots. That’s not ideology. It’s an economic reality that the IRS, Census, and corporate relocation data have been telling us. I said it in my first post, and I’ll say it again. When you tax people past the point where the math makes sense, they leave. When they leave, the burden falls on everyone who doesn’t have the resources to relocate. It’s time to take a common-sense approach to policy and make the great state of New York competitive again. New York has a decision to make. Either it continues down this path and alienates more taxpayers or it becomes more competitive.

I love this state, but I am extremely worried for it’s future. We should be building a thriving ecosystem with an abundance of opportunities for New Yorkers, but instead we are pushing entrepreneurs and businesses to states that are more competitive with policy. Is this really the path we want to take not only for the current residents but for the next generation?

@amitisinvesting @basispointpod @chamath @Jason @BillAckman @kevinolearytv @patrickbetdavid @PBDsPodcast

[Austin Justice @AustinJustice]

BREAKING — new details about Friday's Austin bus stabbing.

Two passengers were sitting in the back of the #3 bus on South Lamar, having a Bible discussion. Rogerio Martinez, sitting across from them, apparently found this annoying.

"I'm tired of hearing your voice,” Martinez said.

Then he stood up with a kitchen knife. One was mid-conversation, turned away, when the first blade went into his back. He spun around and threw up his bare hands -- Martinez kept stabbing. Four times total.

A stranger named jumped in, pushed Martinez off, and wrestled him into a bus seat. Martinez stabbed him in the leg anyway. Bleeding, the man held him pinned to the seat until police arrived.

Officers found Martinez still on the bus, blood on his hands and shirt, surrounded by people he'd just put on the ground. He refused to talk.

One victim was transported to Dell Seton in critical condition. The other to South Austin Hospital. Surveillance footage captured all of it.

Martinez -- who was named as the suspect yesterday on this account before local news reported it today -- has spent decades cycling through Texas courtrooms: robbing people, strangling a family member, and most recently beating an HEB security guard in the forehead with her own flashlight.

Four aggravated robbery charges, a family strangulation, a felony assault knocked to a misdemeanor -- and every time, a system that found a reason to put him back on the street.

Two people are in the hospital now because prosecutors apparently never attempted to take him to court and face punishment for his crimes.

[Geiger Capital @Geiger_Capital]

It’s absolutely perfect…

A liberal man in NYC yelling about how everyone is welcome, as a Muslim man yells "Allahu Akbar!" and uses him as a literal springboard to throw a homemade bomb.

The West’s suicidal empathy on video.

[Yogi @Houseofyogi]

NYC taxes explained for people who don't pay attention:

Property tax. Income tax. Sales tax. Unincorporated business tax. Commercial rent tax. Hotel tax. Mortgage recording tax. Mansion tax. Utility tax. Congestion pricing. Twenty-plus taxes.

And the mayor wants more.

Let me show you what that actually feels like.

You're 26. First real job. $85,000. You feel rich.
Then you see your paycheck.

Federal takes a cut. Fine. Then New York State takes 6%. Then New York City takes another 3.5%. Then there's a "metropolitan commuter mobility tax" you've never heard of.

Your $85K is now $54K before rent.

You grab coffee. 8.875% sales tax. You take an Uber to the airport. Congestion pricing just added $9. Your landlord raised rent, he's passing along a property tax increase you'll never see on a bill but you're paying every month.

You're not rich. You're not even comfortable. You're just surviving. But fine. It's New York. You chose this.

Now here's the part nobody talks about.

In 2000, NYC's budget was $40 billion for 8 million people. That's about $5,000 per person.

Today it's $121 billion for 8.5 million people. $14,244 per person.

Population grew 6%. Inflation was 82%. Spending per person nearly tripled.

So things must be three times better, right?

In 2017, 51% of New Yorkers rated quality of life as good. Today it's 34%.

Only 12% think the city spends money wisely. Only 22% feel safe on the subway at night. Felony assaults hit a 24-year high.

They spend $31,000 per student on education. Less than half kids can read at grade level.

They tripled the spending. Everything got worse.

Where'd the money go?

Pensions up 115%. Outsourced contracts up $7 billion. A brand new $5 billion asylum seeker expense that didn't exist three years ago. Social services doubled. 302,000 city employees. Debt ballooning.

And the new mayor doesn't look at this and say "we need to spend better."

He says "we need to tax more."

A 2% income tax hike that would push the combined state and city rate to 16.8% -> the highest in the entire country. Tax increases that impact everyone.

His supporters chant "tax the rich" at rallies. The top 1% already pay 40% of the city's income tax. And they're leaving anyway. NYC's share of the nation's millionaires dropped from 7% to 4%. They have accountants. They have Florida.

You know who can't leave?

Your uncle with the restaurant. Your parents in that house. You, watching your paycheck disappear into twenty taxes before you can save a dollar.

You need to make $312,000 in New York to live the same lifestyle as someone making $125,000 in Houston.

Houston spends $2,850 per person. No state income tax. No city income tax. Population growing.

NYC spends five times more. Worse results.

NYC is a Netflix subscription that keeps raising the price while the product gets worse.

And you can't cancel.

$40 billion wasn't enough. $60 billion wasn't enough. $80 billion. $100 billion. Now $121 billion.

It will never be enough. Because the problem was never revenue.

There is enough money. There has always been enough money.

They don't need more of yours. They need to do better with what they already take.

I hope you understand what's at stake.

[Joe Lonsdale @JTLonsdale]

The left’s war on our police continues unabated.

Austin DA Garza is good at one thing: tricking local naive leftists that he’s a reasonable guy.

Meanwhile, he totally fails to prosecute criminals and doggedly pursues our law enforcement, scaring many of our cops into resigning.

[I Meme Therefore I Am 🇺🇸 @ImMeme0]

🚨BREAKING: Sinai Law, the leading eviction firm in Los Angeles County, is now providing pro bono services to the Tongva Tribe to remove Billie Eilish from her $14 million LA home, claiming that her admission of living on stolen land gives the tribe a legal right to the property.

“Eilish's admission that she lives on stolen land gives the tribe a rightful action for possession as the true owner of the property.

The 30-day notice is already written and ready to be served.”

[Scott Hendrix @MrScottHendrix]

For comparison, the Mayor of New York City is paid a salary of $259k, and the Governor of California makes $246k per year. Tell me the City of Austin pay scale isn’t way too high. @austintexasgov