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wags

@spowaga.bsky.social
199 followers 297 following 157 posts
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Reposted by wags
David Roberts @volts.wtf · 15h
The more combative Dems get, the more of this they will run into. It will be a coordinated wave of elite opinion, scolding them, tamping them down. The fight strategy *only* works if they are willing to bull their way through it, blow it off, mock it. (Their history does not raise one's hopes.)
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 17h
The targeting of one data center is proving a really useful natural experiment showing which sites and ideologies are an echo chamber of Russian propaganda
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HELL Kennedy @helenkennedy.com · 10/10/2026
They have been dealing secretly with Putin for weeks over this. Impeach. Impeach. Impeach.
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Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
The first Russian diesel cargo heading for the US left St Petersburg on September 22, two weeks *before* Trump announced the deal with Putin, Windward reports. The Greek-flagged tanker Minerva Zen carrying 275,000 barrels of diesel/gasoil is due at the US East Coast around 11–12 October.
Map of tanker’s route
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victoria scott @victoriascott.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
This is just a fucking carjacking. How the hell was he supposed to know it was a state sponsored carjacking. what the fuck are we doing here.
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T. Greg Doucette @gregdoucette.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
To the woman's credit: she defied the court and shared the footage anyway, which shows a state trooper blowing away two trained police dogs as they trotted to him, in response to an active break-in where the dogs were detaining the burglar Cops are great
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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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Chicago Sun-Times @chicago.suntimes.com · 09/10/2026
The Trump administration is denying federal disaster assistance to Illinois for the state's summer storm recovery efforts, according to Gov. JB Pritzker’s office.
chicago.suntimes.com
Trump denies Illinois disaster relief request for summer storms
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A.R. Moxon @juliusgoat.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
They’re live-streaming the execution of the person they think they can get away with doing that to first. It’s a test. If they can do that, they’ll expand the margins of permission.
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Micah @rincewind.run · 08/10/2026
the reason “AI will create so much abundance we will have a utopian society” rhetoric falls so flat is that the people building it will never, ever share their bounty unless it is taken from them and we all know it
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James @gravitysra1nbow.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
I genuinely mean this. I cannot imagine a more bleak dystopian notion than the idea of all art being turned into slop designed to coddle my exact perceived intentions. The point of literature, film, music, and art is to be exposed to the interior lives of others. Who are these people.
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Mr Market Miscalculates 🇪🇺🇺🇦🏴‍☠️ @mrmarketmis.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Let's celebrate the 25th anniversary of the GOAT sell-side research report!
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Rosamundi @rosamundi.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Oh, the Archdiocese of St Louis is *mad*, mad, I see. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
independent.co.uk
Archdiocese sues US government over denied Catholic sacraments for ICE detainees
According to the website of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, religious figures may visit detainees at any time after giving notice to the sheriff’s office. The lawsuit contends that ICE is failing...
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Eric Levai @ericlevai.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Now THIS is how you write a story. Devastating.
Screenshot from this article: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/08/us/politics/fort-hood-execution-streamed-public.html?unlocked_article_code=1.HVE.Rw7O.Sj-0_s5YONzL&smid=nytcore-android-share
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
White supremacist cops take a minority citizen, drive him out to the woods as a threat, and leave him there. No, it's not Mississippi in the 1930s, why do you ask?
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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
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Michael Froomkin @mfroomkin.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Relative got a $500 check from US Treasury and a shocking letter full of lies signed by Trump and ending with "May God bless you". Basically a pre-electoral bribe. News reports say they're sending almost a million of these. Full text in alt below. (I told him to cash it quick before it bounces.)
Dear [name],

For years, the Biden Administration overcharged you to fund the operation of HealthCare.gov. That money belongs to hard-working Americans, not the Government, and now, I am returning it to you!

With this Historic Action, my Administration is taking the surplus funds that accumulated from the Obamacare ''Premium Tax" and issuing a one-time $500 REFUND to Americans who use the HealthCare.gov platform to purchase their health insurance, but who do not receive Taxpayer Subsidies to help pay for their Coverage. You have paid into this flawed System, and now you are finally getting something back.

Healthcare Dollars should benefit Patients, not Insurance Companies or Government Bureaucrats. Since returning to office, I have fought to lower Healthcare Costs, increase Accountability, and Put Patients First. Through TrumpRx, we are delivering massive discounts on Household Prescription Drugs, and my Most-Favored-Nation Pricing Agreements have already saved Americans more than 1 Billion Dollars on much-needed Medications. We also secured an unprecedented 50 Billion Dollar investment to transform Rural Healthcare, expanded access to Health Saving Accounts for millions of people on Obamacare, and restored Pnce Transparency, all while roofing out the Waste, Fraud, and abuse across our Healthcare System.

I am proud to return your money to you, and I will never stop fighting to put the American People FIRST, restore Affordability, protect your hard-earned money, and lower the Cost of Healthcare.

May God bless you, and may He continue to bless the United States of America!

Sincerely,

[signed] 

DONALD J. TRUMP
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 05/10/2026
pedocon theory is a theory like gravity is a theory www.nytimes.com/2026/10/05/o...
nytimes.com
Dennis Hastert, Powerful Politician Disgraced by Child Sexual Abuse, Dies (Gift Article)
The longest-serving Republican speaker of the House admitted in 2016 to abusing teenage boys decades earlier. He was 84.
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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
It’s confusing that @theatlantic.com described this man as a “a lifelong Democrat who had voted for Trump for the first time in 2024” who when these are some of his very easily findable FB posts:
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Djinn & Tonic @djinnandtonic.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
A disqualified insurrectionist is in the White House, he's stolen the power of the purse, he's packed the courts, blew up the White House, engaged in a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing, and graft that would make Warren G. Harding blush. We're so far beyond "but the polls? The procedure??"
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Secretary of Defense Rock @sodrock.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
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Secretary of Defense Rock @sodrock.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Every single one of these stories is like this and it pisses me off to no end
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Grudgie the Wail @grudgie.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
This one deal represents more corruption than every other Presidential Administration combined.
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W.E.D.em Boyz @leftistwonk.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
The first move for Skydance after the merger announcement: fire the studio executives who brought in One Battle After Another and Sinners.
hollywoodreporter.com
Michael De Luca, Pamela Abdy Out at Warner Bros.
The news comes as Paramount Skydance is readying to finalize its deal for the legacy studio.
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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Again, you can always detect some faint embarrassment from Democrats when they talk about the ballroom, but “the president demolished a big part of the White House to build himself a palace with bribes from enemy powers” is, by an order of magnitude, the worst corruption scandal in US history
esquire.com
A Wealthy Russian Businessman Is Helping Fund Trump’s Stupid Ballroom. Nothing Sketchy About That, Right?
Surely, our president will face consequences for this insanity.
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 02/10/2026
not that you should expect anything more than rank idiocy from this pair of racists, but the idea that whiteness means a "high trust" society of "social cohesion" is some of the stupidest shit i have ever heard. these people live in a fantasy land that you could dispel by simply opening a book.
talkingpointsmemo.com
Chris Rufo — Known For ‘DEI’ and ‘CRT’ Panics — Tries to Make ‘the Indian Question’ a Thing
To the degree that a “respectable” or “moderate” right exists today in...
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Matthew Gertz @mattgertz.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
They're holding up a major escalation in Iran and a crackdown on abortion until after the midterms to limit political damage. To the extent that the last two years have been a right-wing smash-and-grab operation, the next two will be worse.
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Rich Raho @richraho.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
The Keynote Speaker at the Annual National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in March, folks.
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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Somehow not everyone is aware of fact alluded to below. So one more time: John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett were all on GWBush 2000 'Florida Recount' team. (Which made GWB first prez in 112 yrs to 'win' after losing popular vote. Now they 'impartially' rule on our future.)
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Senator Dr. John Brown stan account, Esq., PhD, MD, JD, LCSW @johnbrownstan.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
The new Supreme Court structure is it's a set of randomly selected circuit court judges every term, with justices chosen from one of the eligible 25 circuit courts. There's also a 26th circuit court covering the US Minor Outlying Islands comprising 6 justices from the old Supreme Court.
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Lis Power @lispower.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Fox News is honing in on the enemy ... and it's ... Ms. Rachel?
Graphic showing "Ms. Rachel's controversial stances" 

which includes supporting Dem candidates, supporting Palestine, opposing ICE, and stating no one needs a billion dollars.
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Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 01/10/2026
New York's economy grew by 4% in Q2 — more than any other state. Want to get your business off the ground? Hire only the best? There's one place to do it: New York. www.newsweek.com/new-york-lea...
newsweek.com
Map shows which state economies are growing and shrinking ahead of midterms
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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I prefer the incremental solution that can be implemented through bare-majority legislation (240 Supreme Court justices) to Third Way's radical plan, which requires fully amending the Constitution (term limits)
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wags @spowaga.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
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Luke O'Neil @lukeoneil47.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
"There’s no moral or practical justification for the death penalty no matter how you do it. It’s cruel and arbitrary and it doesn’t act as a deterrent. It brutalizes the people who carry it out and traumatizes the families of victims, and the pattern of its application is openly racist."
welcometohellworld.com
Waiting for the next Mr. Death
I don’t want to see anybody hurt, anybody tortured
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Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com · 01/10/2026
i also just have to say that pointing at a falling down barn while bragging about how fewer people are coming to america is about the perfect encapsulation of how MAGA believes in making america smaller and weaker
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David S. Bernstein @dbernstein.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Oh, that kind of Christianity
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Carolyn Fiddler @cfidd.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Bruh, you literally JUST SAID "no fatties" and "no weirdos"
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Bill @bill-of-lefts.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
no option but to pack the court
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southpaw @nycsouthpaw.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Making fundamental due process rights a nullity with the emergency docket (again)
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
And once again, real harms imposed on real people must be set aside until after real damage is done in order to privilege the unproven right of Trump to impose those harms
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the abbot of unreason (an archaeologist) @merovingians.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Dred Scott II if this holds in precedent.
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Coach Finstock @coachfinstock.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Anyone who suggests we just turn the page is in league with the GOP. This guy is telling you they tried to overthrow the government. You don't just pretend it never happened @hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social
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Douglas Reyes-CeroÑ @dreyesceron.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
The Star Spangled Banner being played by the Mariachi Herencia de Mexico band before the Bears-Eagles game in Chicago on Monday Night Football was a deeply cool thing to see tonight
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 29/09/2026
Jack Smith: "History teaches that the rule of law is rarely destroyed all at once. It's often weakened by attacks on the institutions and the public servants sworn to uphold it. Since January 2025, we have witnessed precisely such an effort."
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 29/09/2026
Jack Smith: "Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in serious crimes against our nation ... rather than accept his defeat in the 2020 election, he engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results and prevent the lawful transfer of power"
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nick @unionnick.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
On the *same day* the Cornell Seven drugged and raped Jane Doe, Cornell banned four students (including the President of Cornell JVP) from campus for three years for nonviolent, pro-Palestine protests. The same Cornell officials let the rapists off with apology essays.
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Dante Atkins @danteatkins.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
There is no "Democratic Party division." There is Ryan Grim, Matt Stoller, and a bunch of apologist dead-enders trying to undermine Jackson for the crime of having decided that Platner was not fit to be the nominee. The Democratic Party is united behind Troy Jackson.
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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 27/09/2026
Wishing the diamond cartel a very pleasant fuck you youtu.be/xrg6QCGzQGc
youtu.be
Why Diamond Prices Are Falling So Fast
YouTube video by CNBC
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 27/09/2026
reading this, it does seem as if “rationalism” is an elaborate intellectual architecture designed primarily to support the idea that if you were born white, male and clever then you are the genetic elite and entitled to rule.
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