No, it’s not the Onion. Or Andy Bowowitz. But since the website was registered three days ago in Iceland; and since the site resides on a server in Toronto; and since the “Join Us” link does not lead to a signup page; and since real billionaires would spend far more on a slicker website to defend themselves against a 1% wealth tax; call it a snide joke. A joke about California’s proposed billionaire tax ballot initiative.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) supports it. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, “widely seen as a presidential hopeful,” does not. Google co-founder Sergey Brin has donated “$20 million to a new California political drive weeks after he took steps to leave the state to avoid a possible billionaire tax.”
The Billionaire Tax Act has already pushed the founders of Google to leave the state, taking their economic contributions with them. By taxing unrealized gains and voting shares, the act would make it difficult for founders to retain control of their startups.
Tax law expert, Brian Galle, is the “key architect” behind the measure. “I think capitalism is a great system that probably has, you know, enriched the lives of billions of people,” Galle told Fortune over Zoom recently, “But I’m not sure that our system is a functioning capitalist system right now.”
Critics of the California proposal, including tech billionaire Palmer Luckey, have argued that a wealth tax would force them to liquidate businesses and fire workers to pay the bill. Galle dismissed this, saying, “The idea that they would have to sell a meaningful share of their assets to pay a 1% annual tax is just nonsense.” Galle also rejected the argument that wealth taxes are doomed to fail because they have been repealed in many countries such as France, pointing instead to successful, sustained models in Switzerland and Spain that closed loopholes for privately held businesses.
Billionaires are value-creators, March for Billionaires argues. Jeff Bezos built an online store, right? Larry Page & Sergey Brin made “the world’s information accessible to everyone, for free.” Taylor Swift fills stadiums worldwide. Hamdi Ulukaya popularized Chobani Greek yogurt!
Judge individuals, not classes
Of course, not all billionaires are good people. Some extract rather than create wealth. Some use their resources to cause serious political harm. These criticisms have merit, but they apply to individuals, not billionaires as a whole.
We believe most have made tremendous contributions to society, directly through their entrepreneurship and secondarily through taxes and philanthropy. That deserves our respect and admiration.
So lace up your Gucci sneakers and march with the 0.001% in defense of 1% of their wealth. Respect them. Admire them. Love them. Worship them.
This is a tactical retreat couched in bully boy bluster. Everyone sees through it. He’s calling off the masked thugs marauding through the streets like a gang of barbarians. It’s not working for him.
By the way, he did not do anything but cause havoc in Los Angeles and the police chief said no such thing. The National Guard and the Marines paraded around for a while and then left. There were no huge protests and the ones that took place in front of the federal building downtown were handled easily by the LAPD. They know how to deal with protests, they happen every day. His threats are all bullshit.
Aside from the large lead for the Democrats (+6 is above average), the Fox News Poll found some striking shifts in issue ownership. Fox finds the Democrats lead on affordability (+14), helping the middle class (+14), and healthcare (+21), while Republicans hold advantages on border security (+15), national security (+12), and immigration (+5) — but their previous edges on taxes, foreign policy, and the deficit have evaporated. Those issues are now essentially tied.
Compared to 2023, the last time Fox asked these questions before Trump became president, support for the GOP is down on immigration by 5 points (10 points since 2022), national security by 8, government spending by 11, foreign policy by 12, taxes by 12, and affordability/prices by 26.
Morris notes that while the GOP still has an edge on immigration despite all that’s happened the trend is moving in the Democrats’ direction.
But second, electorally speaking, what has been a better predictor of election outcomes historically is the percent of voters who say they think the Democratic/Republican party is best at handling each individual’s single most important issue. Per Gallup below, whichever party has led on this question in the past 20 years has won the subsequent presidential election. The results also predict midterms reasonably well if you apply a slight penalty for the party in control of the White House.
Meanwhile, Trump’s standing with independents continues to deteriorate. The Economist/YouGov poll conducted Jan. 23-26 found Trump at -18 net approval overall but -40 among independents. That’s a new record low across both his first and second terms.
And even more stunning is this:
The GOP cannot win without Independents. Neither party can since they make up at least a third of the electorate. That chart is a death knell for the midterms if it holds up.
The generic ballot this far out isn’t predictive of the final result — as I wrote earlier this month, the out-party typically gains about 5 points between now and November. But it does tell us where the race starts. And right now, Democrats are starting from their strongest position in years.
As Tom noted below, last night there was a special election to fill a state Senate seat in the solid red 9th district in Texas. The Democrat won, swinging the vote by over 30 points from 2024. I’m not getting my hopes up but it would be such poetic justice if Texas’ gerrymander came back to bite them in the ass next November. They thought they had a lock on the whole state and could afford to dilute their safe seats to squeeze out a few more. They may have placed the wrong bet.
Another group of kids brutalized by Miller’s gestapo:
Today I saw ICE gas little white kids in the streets of Portland with chemical weapons. Imagine what they're doing to brown and black kids in the detention camps
Can confirm ICE seemingly did this without any real warning at a completely peaceful rally. It was fucking nurses and teachers and their families on a Saturday afternoon…
It's hard to overstate how ell-organized the portland march that got gassed was… organizers made the crowd promise to be peaceful, said the march would slow in front of the ICE building but not stop, that we would stick to one chant (ICE Out). They did absolutely everything right and got gassed.
I got tear gassed too. Totally peaceful protest, largely nurses and teachers. Elderly man near me couldn't open his eyes and a woman near me was comforting her baby. Right now I'm still in the OHSU parking garage nearby wondering why nobody seems able to leave… cars not moving at all.
Democrat Taylor Rehmet won a special election for the Texas state senate on Saturday, flipping a reliably Republican district that Donald Trump won by 17 points when he clinched a second presidency in 2024.
Rehmet, a labor union leader and veteran, easily defeated Republican Leigh Wambsganss, a conservative activist, in the Fort Worth-area district. With almost all votes counted, Rehmet had a comfortable lead of more than 14 percentage points.
His victory added to Democrats’ record of overperforming in special elections so far this cycle. Democrats said it was further evidence that voters under the second Trump administration are motivated to reject GOP candidates and their policies.
A huge political earthquake in Texas tonight as Democrats flipped a State Senate seat from red to blue in a district Trump won by 17 points.
Trump personally waded in — endorsing the Republican and personally urging base turnout — and was dealt a massive loss. pic.twitter.com/RwDUP7jhDk
It doesn’t immediately change anything inside what the late Molly Ivins dubbed “the Austin Fun House.” So don’t get overexcited:
Rehmet’s victory allows him to serve only until early January, and he must win the November general election to keep the seat for a full four-year term. The Texas legislature is not set to reconvene until 2027, and the GOP still will have a comfortable majority.
Liam Ramos (Photos courtesy Columbia Heights Public Schools)
Famous at five, Liam Ramos was news at six. The whole world saw the image above of 5-year-old Liam being held as bait by immigration officers. They’d arrested his father, Adrián Alexander Conejo Arias, as he returned home with Liam from preschool on Jan. 20. to lure his mother outside her house:
Erika Ramos, Liam’s mother, told Telemundo in Spanish that she “witnessed the scene from the window and couldn’t do anything. Adrián begged me repeatedly not to go outside because he was afraid they would arrest me too.”
Ramos said the immigration officers noticed her, took Liam out of their car and brought him to the front door so she would open it.
“They knocked and knocked, and my son Liam kept saying, ‘Mommy, open the door.’ I was terrified,” she said while sobbing.
She said she didn’t open the door out of fear she would be arrested and her other child would be left alone.
Never seen a ruling like this: "Observing human behavior confirms that for some among us, the perfidious lust for unbridled power and the imposition of cruelty in its quest know no bounds and are bereft of human decency. And the rule of law be damned." https://t.co/qykE0glTVCpic.twitter.com/LD3sliUqEd
A federal judge on Saturday ordered the boy and his father released.
Warm up your coffee and please read in its entirety this sharp rebuke to DHS Secretary Krisiti Noem, U.S. AG Pam Bondi, Todd Lyons, Acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and others from U.S. District Judge Fred Biery (3 pages). Note the section I’ve bolded:
OPINION AND ORDER OF THE COURT
Before the Court is the petition of asylum seeker Adrian Conejo Arias and his five-year-old son for protection of the Great Writ of habeas 1 corpus. They seek nothing more than some modicum of due process and the rule of law. The government has responded.
The case has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children. This Court and others regularly send undocumented people to prison and orders them deported but do so by proper legal procedures.
[1 Ex parte Bollman, 8 U.S. (4 Cranch) 75 (1807); Sir William W. Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765-1769); see also Magna Carta, Article 39.]
Apparent also is the government’s ignorance of an American historical document called the Declaration of Independence. Thirty-three-year-old Thomas Jefferson enumerated grievances against a would-be authoritarian king over our nascent nation. Among others were:
“He has sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our People.”
“He has excited domestic Insurrection among us.”
“For quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us.”
“He has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our Legislatures.”
“We the people” are hearing echos of that history.
And then there is that pesky inconvenience called the Fourth Amendment:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and persons or things to be seized.
U.S. CONST. amend. IV.
Civics lesson to the government: Administrative warrants issued by the executive branch to itself do not pass probable cause muster. That is called the fox guarding the henhouse. The Constitution requires an independent judicial officer.
Accordingly, the Court finds that the Constitution of these United States trumps this administration’s detention of petitioner Adrian Conejo Arias and his minor son, L.C.R. The Great Writ and release from detention are GRANTED pursuant to the attached Judgment.
Observing human behavior confirms that for some among us, the perfidious lust for unbridled power and the imposition of cruelty in its quest know no bounds and are bereft of human decency. And the rule of law be damned.
Ultimately, Petitioners may, because of the arcane United States immigration system, return to their home country, involuntarily or by self-deportation. But that result should occur through a more orderly and humane policy than currently in place.
Philadelphia, September 17, 1787: “Well, Dr. Franklin, what do we have?” “A republic, if you can keep it.”
With a judicial finger in the constitutional dike,
It is so ORDERED.
SIGNED this 31st day of February, 2026. [He meant January.]
Below his signature, Biery added the photo and Bible quotes seen in Kyle Cheney’s post above.
Matthew 19:14 But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.
John 11:35 Jesus wept.
In another court decision issued Saturday, federal District Court Judge Kate Menendez punted on a demand from the state of Minnesota and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul to end “Operation Metro Surge” by thousands of DHS agents. Plaintiffs had not shown that the action (on the whole, see Biery decision above) had not crossed 10th Amendment constitutional lines:
“Plaintiffs have provided no metric by which to determine when lawful law enforcement becomes unlawful commandeering, simply arguing that the excesses of Operation Metro Surge are so extreme that the surge exceeds whatever line must exist,” she wrote, referencing a courtroom exchange with a lawyer for the state. “A proclamation that Operation Metro Surge has simply gone ‘so far on the other side of the line’ is a thin reed on which to base a preliminary injunction.”
Judge Menendez denies Minnesota plaintiffs’ request to end Operation Metro Surge because they don’t meet the high bar set by the 10th Amendment, but she also points to what she doesn’t decide, including the legality of what ICE is doing on the ground. pic.twitter.com/dLNAv7Aalr
The Court pauses to observe what it is not deciding. At this stage, the Court makes no final determination on the merits of any claims asserted by Plaintiffs. Nor does the Court offer any opinion about the wisdom of Operation Metro Surge. And the legality of many of the specific actions taken by federal agents during the operation is not before the Court in this case. Instead, the Court only decides whether to grant the extraordinary remedy of a preliminary injunction halting a federal law enforcement operation based upon the Tenth Amendment. In answering this question, the Court must view Plaintiffs’ claims through the lens of the specific legal framework they invoke, and, having done so, finds that Plaintiffs have not met their burden. For the reasons discussed below, the motion is denied.
An appeals court stayed a preliminary injunction Menendez issued in January ordering agents not to retaliate “against persons who are engaging in peaceful and unobstructive protest activity, including observing the activities of Operation Metro Surge.” The appellate court found her ruling “too broad” and “too vague” to survive appeal.
Trump 2.0 has generated a “deluge” of such court cases leading in recent weeks to judges ordering the release of hundreds of immigrants, The New York Times reports:
In case after case, federal judges have found that the Trump administration has been ignoring longstanding legal interpretations that mandate the release of many people who are taken into immigration custody if they post a bond.
The surge in such cases has dominated the court dockets in some districts, overwhelming government lawyers who have to defend the detentions. And the wave of people who have been set free has upended the Trump administration’s effort to keep detained immigrants locked up indefinitely, even if they do not pose a public safety threat.
But as we’ve seen, the legal pushback has in no way curbed lawless, aggressive violent behavior by armed agents of the Trump-Miller pogrom. Last month they took the lives of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
PBS reports that Pretti’s shooting was “at least the fourth shooting fatality linked to immigration enforcement since Trump returned to the Oval Office. At least eight other shootings have led to injury, according to a PBS News review of news coverage, as well as tallies from The Trace, NBC News and The Washington Post.”
The Guardian adds, “Pretti and Good are just two people out of at least eight who have either been killed by federal agents or who have died while in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody in 2026 so far.”
Nor has legal pushback stopped an increasingly imperial Trump administration from ignoring judicial rulings or from declaring Trump a law unto himself. The Bill of Rights is no longer operative if the Trump administration finds your constitutional rights inconvenient. Jeff Sharlet’s slow civil war has accelerated since January 20, 2025.
My sign efforts since August were predicated on a simple notion born out of years of greeting harried voters outside polling stations: if people trust you, they will vote with you. Sign Guy (me) is already familiar to 10,000 commuters per week. With trusted messenger status, I might after Labor Day gently persuade more of them to vote. Naive, maybe, but not simply more of the usual thing. But last month’s events have me reconsidering that strategy and timeline. Things are already too dire. This situation requires more boldness on my part and on yours, and now. Democracy can’t wait.
As he villain in Iron Man 3put it, “ever since that big dude with a hammer fell out of the sky, subtlety’s kinda had its day.”
