Sam Blumenthal

[Sam Blumenthal @samablumenthal]

1/ AIM was one of the most popular messaging networks in the 1990s and early 2000s. While it enabled users to instantly communicate with friends, it’s identity layer was limited to a simple username.

Without a profile page, users found new use cases for the “Away Message”.

[Sam Blumenthal @samablumenthal]

@AustinHuff @grok @grok your life depends on your accuracy.

[Sam Blumenthal @samablumenthal]

@AustinHuff @grok you are an expert lip reader. Recreate what was being said between sirianni and aj brown

[Sam Blumenthal @samablumenthal]

There should be a palantir-esque company that allows citizens to surveil the government

[Sam Blumenthal @samablumenthal]

@JoeyMannarino @grok when was this video from?

[david friedberg @friedberg]

why not just raise income tax rates?

because your real intent is not to just “provide healthcare”.

you’re masking that you are proposing the creation of, for the first time in the 250 years of this American republic, an organized government seizure of private property from citizens.

you’re calling it a “wealth tax” or a “billionaires tax” or “millionaires tax” or whatever nom du jour polls well. but at the end of the day, it’s the seizure of private property from citizens by the government. citizens that earned money, paid their fair taxes on those earnings (53% if they live in California) and are now being told they need to hand over after-tax assets because the government has failed to provide promised services with the revenue it’s collected, and are now re-casting their own failure to be a socio-economic inequity that must be justly resolved... a slippery slope that has never gone anywhere good (see economic effects in USSR, Cuba, Venezuela, France and Norway wealth tax etc.)

the American founders fled tyranny in Europe and this amazing nation was populated by immigrants (myself and your parents) from around the world not just looking for a “better life” but for a place where they could have freedom from tyrannical governments that can take what they want from private citizens. a great nation borne of property rights, the rule of law, and endowed freedoms to believe, speak, or act. these principles led to the greatest run of innovations, successes, and widespread increase in prosperity, for all citizens, ever seen.

the citizens, the individuals, not the institutions, delivered this progress. those who invented, who toiled, who bled, who sacrificed, who took risk and persevered, who led, and who changed the world, are not charlatans, kleptocrats, or oligarchs. they’re what made us all better off. prosperity is a measure of america’s success, not its failure.

it is your principle that is so offensive, as evidenced by the broad disdain for your flippant flirtation with the darkest of human fantasy - socialism. you and other neo-socialists have led so many of us to reflect on America’s history and what it is becoming. that now leads so many to consider, so unnecessarily, leaving their homes for a place where everyone stands up to shout down the principle you suggest. because if your ideas are now considered moderate, it’s clear this titanic is sinking.

that a “simple tax” of taking assets that have been earned, through toil and tribulation, rightly taxed, and preserved, should now be unjustly seized, is your solution to a problem of obvious government mismanagement and outright fraud, tells us that your true motivation lies not in giving people healthcare but in cutting down success and deleting the system of prosperity and opportunity for all.

i don’t care, and neither should anyone else, what the sum total market value of a private citizens private assets might be. it is none of my business and should be none of yours. because, again, once you open that pandora’s box, we might as well study Lord of the Flies … there is literally nothing stopping 51% of citizens demanding that their government go out and seize 100% of the private property of the 49%.

want to give healthcare to people in need? do your job and fix healthcare. make it affordable. want to be lazy about it? then do your job lazily and raise income taxes.

want to take private property from private citizens who have paid their fair share of taxes and legally earned their property, then honestly declare that it is envy, not inequity, that you strive to resolve…

[Sam Blumenthal @samablumenthal]

@RoKhanna @friedberg I lived in California (LA) for 3 years. On a daily basis, I was terrorized by mentally ill homes less people. A few broke into my house. There was no public transit to speak of. A few years later, my friends homes burned down. The issue is not the people, but their servants!

[Sam Blumenthal @samablumenthal]

@RoKhanna @friedberg The better question is: why can’t Californians have health insurance without this tax? California has the highest tax revenue ($265B) of any state. Is the issue you don’t have enough money, or you don’t spend it correctly?

[Sam Blumenthal @samablumenthal]

@eriktorenberg Proof of storytelling is a compelling way to evaluate talent, regardless of job. Storytelling can come in a variety of form factors.

[Sam Blumenthal @samablumenthal]

@AdamSinger 😂

[Sam Blumenthal @samablumenthal]

@benln @hf0residency @ycombinator @southpkcommons @fdotinc @seqoia @pearvc @neo @conviction @villageglobal @AntlerGlobal 👋
https://t.co/tSqUXgQ2YE

[Sam Blumenthal @samablumenthal]

@CliffordAsness Coward

[Sam Blumenthal @samablumenthal]

@coldxman How would you define 'merit'? In your life, which institutions have you experienced that best exemplify a meritocracy? Inversely, which institutions least exemplified one?

[Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 @Noahpinion]

Leftists are often downwardly mobile children of successful parents, who use leftism to try to force their way into the elite they believe to be their birthright.

[Sam Blumenthal @samablumenthal]

Forcing me to download and pay for the ESPN app to watch MNF may make me turn on capitalism

[Sam Blumenthal @samablumenthal]

@micsolana Status games, almost always.

[Sam Blumenthal @samablumenthal]

The deterioration of our attention spans doesn't get the focus it deserves.

A great irony.

[Sam Blumenthal @samablumenthal]

@Blutman27 He’s a snake

[Sam Blumenthal @samablumenthal]

@_stainless0_ Kook

[Sam Blumenthal @samablumenthal]

Breaking News

[Mike Solana @micsolana]

“what if this service that is already bad had less money?”