Discussion

• @bizcarson Biz Carson on x

  NEW: Sergey Brin Confronted Gavin Newsom in a Treehouse at a Party (and gave him a cold) — Then Launched a Political War With @eli_kamisher for @business, a look at billionaire spending in CA politics this cycle https://www.bloomberg.com/...

• @ndhapple Nolan Hicks on bluesky

  “In a treehouse nestled in redwoods north of San Francisco, California Governor Gavin Newsom stood cold and hungry as Sergey Brin, the world's fourth-richest man, and his wellness-influencer girlfriend told him they were leaving the state.”  — www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

• r/California r on reddit

  Sergey Brin Confronted Gavin Newsom at a Treehouse Party — Then Launched a Political War

• r/sanfrancisco r on reddit

  Sergey Brin Confronted Gavin Newsom at a Treehouse Party — Then Launched a Political War

• r/politics r on reddit

  Sergey Brin Confronted Gavin Newsom at a Treehouse Party — Then Launched a Political War

• @erika_d_smith Erika D. Smith on x

  “Newsom, who opposes the wealth tax, was still telling people about the lengthy exchange at the party months later, complaining of a lingering cold the pair had given him.”

• @william_fitz William Fitzgerald on x

  Everyone keeps reporting Brin left California for Nevada but i've also read that he works out of Google office in Bay Area. Is he commuting from Tahoe to Mountain View every day?

• @lorenasgonzalez Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher on x

  You have a billionaire running who has..fully adopted an agenda that the vast majority of voters agree with: Taxing billionaires, funding healthcare, fighting back against ICE...then you have billionaires pushing a candidate whose talking points are apologetic to tech industry.

• @eli_kamisher Eliyahu Kamisher on x

  NEW: Sergey Brin Confronted Gavin Newsom in a Treehouse (and gave him a cold) — Then Launched a Political War With @bizcarson for @business, a look at billionaire spending in CA politics this cycle https://www.bloomberg.com/...

• @profstonge Peter St Onge, Ph.D. on x

  Google co-founder Sergey Brin — worth $275 billion — is getting red-pilled by his MAGA girlfriend. They left has media, universities, and an army of NGO's. We have the perfect 10's 🙌

• @tonyannett Tony Annett on x

  Here's the problem. If AI pushes up the capital share and collapses the labor share of income, we're going to need a lot more than a once-off 5% wealth tax. We're going to have to tax wealth at Piketty-style confiscatory rates. But look at the reaction to even the tiniest tax

• @_rotimia Rotimi Adeoye on x

  I'm pretty sympathetic to this argument. It's a reasonable that no one wants to be taxed 10x more than the year prior. But with the current speed of AI we have to drastically increase spending on the social safety net. Relying on generous donors/nonprofits isn't a plan.

• @chriswithans Chris on x

  Interesting article. I enjoyed. Makes me think back to the big talk about “Abundance” from neoliberals back in early 2025. That's all gone now. Democrats are intentionally trying to shrink the pie and take more from it, and they're losing the very people they need to make

• @razibkhan Razib Khan on x

  the proposal is crazy. but it's clearly an opening gambit ... but the billionaire class isn't playing along.

• @sdamico Sam D'Amico on x

  was told that the guy who wrote it basically consulted with no one when doing so, wrote it in the maximally adversarial way, and then ... everyone still went along with it ....!

• @razibkhan Razib Khan on x

  the market economy can support some level of redistribution; but some of the leftier democrats basically aim to hamstring the market severely (eg mass unionization/union control of the commanding heights). this freaks post-soviets out...

• @maxhodak_ Max Hodak on x

  this coverage is so insane. due to the voting thing this law would cost them almost half their stake and control of their company of course they won't hang around for to be confiscated, you wouldn't either. These taxes will fall on the middle class when spending goes up anyway

• @yashalevine Yasha Levine on x

  he's worth like $300 billion — all from a company that got launched with the help of military industrial public grants. he can bear the burden.

• @joshkraushaar Josh Kraushaar on x

  Sergey Brin, to NYT: “I fled socialism with my family in 1979 and know the devastating, oppressive society it created in the Soviet Union. I don't want California to end up in the same place.” https://www.nytimes.com/... via @NYTimes

• @mattzeitlin Matthew Zeitlin on x

  times photo editors deserve a raise [image]

• @mrabkin Mark Rabkin on x

  Even if you fully believe in amazing CA efficiency of taxation and services (kinda hard, but ok...), just pragmatically: with mobility in the US, you will literally raise less $ to help the needy on this path.

• @samfbiddle Sam Biddle on x

  Men will literally date a “gut-health influencer” instead of paying taxes

• @kimmaicutler Kim-Mai Cutler on x

  None of the billionaire tax coverage about Sergey Brin in Bloomberg or the NYTimes reports the most important structural detail of why he opposes it so much more than Jensen. It taxes voting shares as ownership. It taxes Page and Brin as if they own 50+% or >$2 trillion of

• @aphysicist Aaron Slodov on x

  >be sergey >escape poverty-stricken USSR with academic parents >come to america with nothing >build arguably one of the greatest businesses of all time >california: “give us 5% of your net worth” >won't fix a single problem the state has >refuse to clap >mfw this is somehow

• @mrabkin Mark Rabkin on x

  We're by far the highest income tax in the nation and it isn't enough! We need to tax MOAAAR! Meanwhile: for high brackets, CA takes 21.9% of your remaining $ after you pay fed taxes 😱 (13.3%/(1-40%)) 22% is a lot. It is very easy to lose your whole tax base this way.

• @adamsinger Adam Singer on x

  If only more people understood the history we see repeating as well as Sergey [image]

• @bigblackjacobin Edward Ongweso Jr on x

  I think making super voting structure firms pay more in taxes is in line with the defenses given for benefiting from public markets while being privately governed by founders and their cliques. This lets you deliver much more value? OK! Roger that!

• @teddyschleifer Teddy Schleifer on x

  NEW: Sergey Brin, his “MAGA Girlfriend” and a $57 million bid to kill the California billionaires tax. The inside story of how a Google cofounder and a gut-health influencer ghosted Matt Mahan and confronted Gavin Newsom — even if Newsom is “handsome.” https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @teddyschleifer Teddy Schleifer on x

  In a rare on-record statement, Sergey Brin tells me: “I fled socialism with my family in 1979 and know the devastating, oppressive society it created in the Soviet Union. I don't want California to end up in the same place.” https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @taylorlorenz Taylor Lorenz on x

  “A gut-health influencer”

• NewsMax.com Theodore Bunker on x

  Newsom Blindsided as Brin Eyes Calif. Exit Over Tax