iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Rusty D. Pickens @rusty.digital · 09/10/2026

Kushner IS NOT a US government employee 😡😰

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Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

New working paper: the Norwegian wealth tax was a huge success. The "exodus" of wealthy people never happened (less than 100 individuals left). Tax revenue increased by 71.5%. No changes in business activity or investment. www.nber.org/papers/w35854

Taxing Entrepreneurial Wealth: Evidence from
Norway, 2021-2025
Marius A. K. Ring
WORKING PAPER 35854|
DOl 10.3386/w35854
ISSUE DATE October 2026
Whether imposing higher taxes on business owners adversely affects business activity by constraining investment and inducing capitalist flight is a central question in the ongoing debate on how to tax the ultra wealthy. To shed new light, I exploit a series of related Norwegian reforms during 2021-2024 that increased dividend tax rates, removed migration-related capital gains tax loopholes, and nearly doubled the effective marginal tax rate on business wealth. These reforms spurred international debate and, allegedly, an "exodus" of Norwegian billionaires (Financial Times,
2023). While I document clear effects on migration, these responses are concentrated among the top 0.1% of the wealth distribution and mostly confined to 2022 and 2023. My results indicate that at most 100 individuals left due to the reforms. I find no evidence of significant outmigration or reduced inflows of startup founders or inventors. I estimate that absent any outmigration, wealth tax revenues would have increased by 75% from 2021 to 2024. Reform-driven outmigration lowers the revenue gain to 71.5%. My findings further show that outmigrating owners' firms remain economically active and do not reduce investment. In a broader set of analyses, I examine whether business outcomes are affected, regardless of whether owners outmigrate, since firms may reduce investment both due to liquidity constraints or distortions to owners' savings decisions. I compare firms owned by Norwegian individuals subject to the wealth tax with firms owned by foreigners and other tax-exempt entities. By merging historical ownership data from Orbis with the Norwegian shareholder register, I perform these analyses on both Norwegian and foreign-domiciled firms.
Across settings, I find no evidence that Norwegian-owned firms pay out more dividends or invest less after the reforms,…

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Rusty D. Pickens @rusty.digital · 09/10/2026

How much of this is either funded by or instigated by Russia? Same playbook as 2016. New incident. Imagine driving yet another wedge between Americans about…checks notes…student rape and assault.

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Rusty D. Pickens @rusty.digital · 09/10/2026

This is particularly insidious with regard to Indian Country.

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Dom Ervolina @dominicervolina.com · 09/10/2026

So a bunch of guys in plainclothes surrounded a man in a car and shot him, then the government disappeared him and refuses to release any information about his condition or whereabouts

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Rusty D. Pickens @rusty.digital · 09/10/2026

2001 called: they would like an answer as to why the Secretary of Homeland Security is picking a fight with the Mayor of New York. 😖🤬

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Rusty D. Pickens @rusty.digital · 09/10/2026

America’s great shame. 😖😢😩 But beyond that: this is mainly happening because a healthy part of this country *wanted and voted for it*. If we can manage to seat some adults to run the government after November, we’re still going to have to sit with this for a good long while.

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Rusty D. Pickens @rusty.digital · 09/10/2026

💙💪🏼🔥🇺🇸 A lot more of this please. CC: Democrats (particularly congressional leadership)

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Roosevelt Institute @rooseveltinstitute.org · 09/10/2026

We've seen this work before. The New Deal built the most broadly shared prosperity America has ever known, precisely because government took an active hand instead of getting out of the way. Then 50 years of market-first policy dismantled it, piece by piece.

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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

This is an excellent point. When pro-democracy, anti-corruption forces get power, they won't need elaborate new laws to start getting Elon Musk, Palmer Luckey, Peter Thiel, and other tech oligarchs out of government. They've almost certainly committed fraud and other already existing crimes.

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Greg Greene (he/him/his) @greene.haus · 08/10/2026

"If they get away with this it will be worse next time. I promise you." – @adamserwer.bsky.social, Jan. 6, 2021

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Rusty D. Pickens @rusty.digital · 08/10/2026

The level of embarrassment, disappointment, shame, and disgust I feel from thinking that one of our duly charged Ambassadors--entrusted with the legacy of the likes of Thomas Jefferson, George Marshall, and Madeleine Albright--would behave this way cannot be overstated. They must be held to account

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Rusty D. Pickens @rusty.digital · 08/10/2026

If FULL ACCOUNTABILITY isn't on the table for each and every one of these folks if sane minds retake a branch of government after November, we will not have done our jobs. They must be investigated, prosecuted, and *sentenced* to the fullest extent of the law no matter how long it takes.

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Jessica Ellis @baddestmamajama.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Yeah so that’s attempted murder.

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Steve Rattner @steverattner.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Corporate profits and tax revenues grew together until the Trump tax cuts. Now corporate profits are at an all-time high while tax receipts are at their lowest since 2021.

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Joshua Foust 🪖🎮 @joshuafoust.com · 05/10/2026

I’d suggest the genre of profile journalism has some shortcomings

The cover of Fortune Magazine that calls the convicted fraud Sam Bankman-Fried “the next warren buffet” because of his crypto-scam

The cover of Forbes, where Elizabeth Holmes holds a capsule of blood for a cover story extolling her genius, shortly before she was convicted for fraud and sentenced to a long prison sentence.

A glossy photo spread extolling the glamour and taste of Asma al-Assad, weeks before her husband committed multiple war crimes and eventually had to flee to Russia to avoid being hacked apart by an enraged rob.

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Rusty D. Pickens @rusty.digital · 05/10/2026

Heartily co-signed. First, focus on the win. Second, don’t let them steal it. Third: you better be ready to govern. And it’s going to take a lot more than the weaksauce we’ve seen from Schumer and Jeffries these last two years 🤬✊🏼🔥🇺🇸

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Rusty D. Pickens @rusty.digital · 04/10/2026

Such an extraordinary and inspirational public servant. 🙄🥵🤦🏼‍♂️

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Roosevelt Institute @rooseveltinstitute.org · 30/09/2026

Meta tells investors its AI is a tremendous success. It tells the IRS its data centers are an experiment that could fail. Why? Only experiments qualify for this tax break. Meta is exploiting it, labeling its proven chips "research" to get a $4B tax break.

nytimes.com

How Meta Uses A.I. Data Centers to Avoid Billions in Federal Taxes

Meta is exploiting a lucrative tax break intended to support research and experimentation. Its own accountants say the gambit is risky.

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Rusty D. Pickens @rusty.digital · 30/09/2026

We had an informal rule during the #44 days: if I can't trust you with the small things, then I can't trust you with the big things. Staff Sec--call your office.

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Rusty D. Pickens @rusty.digital · 30/09/2026

"With the confidence of a mediocre white man..." But seriously, this kind of haughty, dismissive attitude, against a public servant and arguably one of the best prosecutors on the planet is something to behold. Especially after having clearly done zero due diligence on their outrageous claims.

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Rusty D. Pickens @rusty.digital · 30/09/2026

👀 Cool cool. So, what data are you going to put in it?

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Rusty D. Pickens @rusty.digital · 29/09/2026

This should have been the last and final word--but no, we let him remain free, continue tampering with our politics and elections, and then entrusted him with power *again*. And...he's going to do it *again*. Why wouldn't he? We haven't show him that we'll stop him.

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Rusty D. Pickens @rusty.digital · 29/09/2026

There's a pretty simple fix: this is illegal. So haul these folks in to testify in open committee at the very least. Or at the very worst, detain them until they comply. If congress doesn't assert itself in some way, shape, or fashion real soon, it's going to be totally irrelvant.

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Gary Legum @glegum.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

It's possible Kimberly Guilfoyle lacks an ambassadorial temperament.

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Rusty D. Pickens @rusty.digital · 26/09/2026

🤢🤢🤦🏼‍♂️😖

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Rusty D. Pickens @rusty.digital · 26/09/2026

No deal to be had—terms are the same as they were in 2014. 💙💪🏼🇺🇦

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Jesse Felder @jessefelder.com · 24/09/2026

‘It does seem a bit rough that Oracle might be on the hook for hefty rental payments starting 2028 as anchor tenant of a massive data centre complex if the complex is just a hole in the ground. What do credit markets make of this?‘ www.ft.com/content/82db...

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conifergirl.bsky.social @conifergirl.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

He resigned from the General Services Administration in June 2025, and within days the Social Security Administration confirmed it had hired him as a special government employee to work on the functionality of the Social Security website.

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Jay Willis @jaywillis.net · 22/09/2026

For all the work the conservative legal movement put into capturing the Supreme Court, they've never been able to get around the basic fact that normal people hate its policy agenda. The polling numbers on Citizens United are ABYSMAL. Blowout-level stuff. ballsandstrikes.org/law-politics...

A major contributing cause of this explosive increase was Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision striking down a federal law that prohibited corporations from using their general treasury funds to support or oppose candidates for office. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the five-justice majority that the prohibition was tantamount to “censorship,” and that the intrusion on corporations’ First Amendment rights could not be justified by the government’s interest in preventing corruption.

According to a 2025 YouGov poll, 79 percent of Americans disagree with the majority’s conclusion that independent corporate expenditures “do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption.” On the contrary, 75 percent believe that unlimited spending in elections makes democracy weaker by allowing the wealthy to exert too much influence over the decisionmaking of ostensibly public servants. Basically, Citizens United opened the floodgates to a wave of big money in politics, and people are tired of drowning.

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Rusty D. Pickens @rusty.digital · 19/09/2026

605% huh? Do we just make up numbers now? The only thing true about this statement is the likelihood of them shoveling terabytes of public data sets into private models…who will do god knows what with it. 🤦🏼‍♂️😵‍💫🔥🇺🇸 (Also, why is the FBI director on television?!)

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Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 19/09/2026

To the 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly: Welcome to the world’s city.

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The Onion @theonion.com · 17/09/2026

Mitch McConnell Returns To Capitol Hill In Jar Of Formaldehyde

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Rusty D. Pickens @rusty.digital · 17/09/2026

That’s a lie. CC: @congressfellows.bsky.social We have the talent. The members just don’t have the willpower.

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Rusty D. Pickens @rusty.digital · 17/09/2026

Let’s just stop with the “possibility” of contempt. They are contemptuous. They are pure, pre-meditated contempt. Throw them in jail already so they can actually understand the law and learn that it has consequences when you break it. ✊🏼🔥🇺🇸

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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

This will only be true if we do fundamental institutional reform. Otherwise, a future far right president will absolutely dare such abuses, within years, let alone centuries. Democrats winning elections forever isn't a strategy. The platform <must be institutional reform>: bsky.app/profile/mcop...

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Rusty D. Pickens @rusty.digital · 16/09/2026

👀👀😂🤷🏼‍♂️🙌🏼

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public health guy @publichealthguy1.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

republicans in disarray

email from • The Washington Sun
5:08 PM
title: Panic! In the Speaker's Office
body: Good afternoon. Here's what you need to
know. A meeting in Mike Johnson's office...

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Rusty D. Pickens @rusty.digital · 16/09/2026

The "amazing things" they've been doing: - corruption under every rock - hiring the least qualified people - *starting* new & endless wars after promising not to - abducting people off the street & imprisoning them - ICE murdering Americans - exploding the deficit & inflation ... we can keep going

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Rusty D. Pickens @rusty.digital · 16/09/2026

I don't know why we have to pretend we don't know why? Of course we know why. And if this is a visible symptom of the grift, pay-to-play, and profiting off the highest office in the country--then I implore you to imagine how bad what is actually happening behind closed doors is.

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Mrs. Betty Bowers @mrsbettybowers.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

The United States doesn't have a Democratic-condoned voter fraud problem. That is a lie. But the United States *definitely* has a Republican-coordinated voter suppresision problem. That is the reality. And only the latter has any effect on our elections.

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