“Seattle AI founder looks to leave as taxes rise: ‘Everybody that I know … is in the process of leaving’,” Fox News reported Saturday. “Jesse Proudman says Venice.ai is looking at Texas, Nevada, Florida and Tennessee as alternatives to Seattle’s tax climate.”
That’s three “red” states and one “purple” state that Proudman is setting his sights on. If he and “everybody he knows” move there, what can we expect from them?
The OpenSecrets donor lookup shows him solidly and consistently in the Democrat camp, with the first two entries going to Hillary Clinton and the Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility. Clinton’s stance on the Second Amendment is well known: she’s a zealous prohibitionist.
So, what does the Alliance consider “gun responsibility”? Their “Timeline” shows their “Victories” over the past decade, and each one is a loss for gun owners. You got it, they want it.
That doesn’t bode well for freer states that Proudman and “everybody” he knows want to move to, where they will presumably continue to advance Democrat rule. They’re seemingly oblivious to the repeated human experience that once a majority is achieved, restraints against collectivist excesses can be thrown off. Besides, controlling everything is expensive. And if those in charge want it they can take it.
It’s almost like all freedoms are interconnected or something, and that an unrestrained government powerful enough to control guns is powerful enough to do whatever it wants.
That lesson appears lost on people who should be smart enough to know better. But the reality is, the self-styled “party of the working man” is increasingly the party of high-profile billionaires, even though the increasingly in-your-face Marxists the rope-selling capitalists are financing (like Seattle’s wholly unqualified Mayor Katie Wilson) have made no secret of their contempt for the well-heeled useful idiots who enable them.
While some are beginning to awaken to the fact that history is not kind to the “One Percent” when the proletariat decides they’re too fat and it’s too hungry, plutocrat lifeboat schemes like “guaranteed annual income” or Apocalyptic luxury bunkers will prove desperately delusional. The only thing that will work is what they’re helping to ban.
And it’s not just the wealthy Democrats.
“On the East Coast, New York City is facing a renewed exodus. According to a Citizens Budget Commission (CBC) study released earlier this month, the Big Apple lost more residents than it gained last year,” Fox News notes. “The report found that New York City lost approximately 114,000 more domestic residents to other U.S. cities than it gained in 2025, reversing two years of marginal growth.”
AOC’s mom loves the lower taxes. But her support for the “Green New Deal” shows she hasn’t learned a thing about politics.
“Boston’s affordability crisis drives young workers to consider leaving,” Fox Business adds. “Survey finds nearly half of those leaving the Northeast are heading south as rent hits $2,918 a month in Boston.”
How does that demographic vote again?
Proudman’s the one who brought up Texas, a state the gun prohibitionists have been eyeing to turn back to “blue” for some time (many younger gun owners today don’t remember Gov. Ann Richards, who wouldn’t let Texans vote on concealed carry). As things stand at this writing, committed gun-banner James Talrico leads both John Cornyn and Ken Paxton in the Senate race.
Who thinks an influx of hypocritical Democrats into these states, voters who don’t want to personally “pay their fair share” (their terminology, not mine) for the type of government they demand, will work out well for gun owners?
We’ve seen what happened in Colorado. We can see what’s happening all over the country in an analysis by the National Taxpayers Union Foundation, which blindly opines:
“Texas, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee were the biggest net winners from interstate migration, while California, New York, Illinois, New Jersey, and Massachusetts were the biggest net losers.”
If your only value is short-term financial gains, they may have a point. But long-term losses from increasingly strident collectivist demands – not just on incomes but on essential freedoms like the right of the people to keep and bear arms – are predictable.
For its size, South Carolina is seeing the biggest influx per capita of new residents from other states, equal to just over 1% of its population. In other words, for every 100 people living in the state, one new person moved in from elsewhere in the country… With the influx of residents, South Carolina gained more than 29,000 new tax filers and roughly $4.1 billion in income. This shift is likely to boost local economies in the state as new residents bring spending power and help fill open jobs in growing industries.
It’s all reminiscent of the story of Esau, who traded his birthright for a mess of pottage. And what’s not being factored in by these migrating Democrats is when their new nests become as fouled as the ones they abandoned, there will be no safe haven to fly to.
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About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
The last statement of this piece is the most cogent. These effing rat-asses bring their stink with them and can’t fathom that when the place becomes the same overcontrolled, restricted dem-hole they left, it’s because of them. People who know nothing about raising cattle move here to buy houses in new subdivisions built on land where farmers have sold out to developers while surviving farms remain nearby. The new people complain about the smells associated with the farming activities that pre-dated their arrival by 350 years. They complain about tractors plodding down the road too slowly. Em-Effers. I never saw… Read more »
We lobby to bring in new industry and businesses from outside to improve the economy but we also import all the Marxist-Stalinist twaddle that accompanied those industries. In Virginia, the NOVA vacuum of the D.C. swamp has polluted my state into an unrecognizable disaster with its baggage of left wing-nut beliefs.
It’s a powerful force that drives these gun-hating liberals. Like Virginia’s trendy new Fried Spamburger for example. Nobody’s ever came to office anywhere that hit so hard and so quickly against gun rights. Fried Spamburger stepped off the swear-in podium throwing haymakers! And if leftist fanatics like her aren’t devilish enough on their own, wait until thousands of lunatic supporters start egging them on.
I have actually helped people move from cartel run countries where they have no real freedoms or hope for anything better than abject poverty. I watched and applauded as they became citizens. I was sorely disappointed to learn they voted demoncrap. Insanity. I have relatives who still have not gotten their citizenship due to fear of deportation. They have had years to get this done except for a lack of funds to do so and incentive to do what is right. One of them was able to actually put in the paperwork, and pay some of the fees/fines. He hired… Read more »
For clarity’s sake stop assuming that technical geniuses are ‘smart enough to know better.’ Very often one channel of intelligence blinds the other channels. Very often technical or linear geniuses are philosophical morons. And that is certainly the case in Silicon Valley. I used to work with these people. Complex intellects are rare in this crowd. They can jam code 23 hours a day but their absentee ballot proves to be a mystery to them. The Progressive New Left has learned how to co-opt, tame and manage these technical morons and they do so by flattering and then blinding with… Read more »
Maybe some billboards in red and purple states “Welcome to xxxxx state. Please don’t bring your junk ideas with you! We don’t want to be like where you came from!” Same problem is occurring here in AZ.
Democrats destroy every geographical area they inhabit, then move and bring the same destructive policies to the new locale. They’re too arrogant and dumb to see they are to blame, and they are the cause of injustice, poverty and infringement of rights. It will ll come to a head within a decade.
Few politicians have a moral center. From your HOA and school board to your governor and senators, they’ve never seen a penny of revenue or an iota of growth that they could say no to. They never give a moments thought to the long term consequences of chasing lucre. It’s bad enough that left-leaning useful idiots migrate to and then destroy other States once theirs is laid waste but it is the height of folly to lay out a welcome mat for them.
“Jesse Proudman says Venice.ai is looking at Texas, Nevada, Florida and Tennessee”
“That’s three “red” states and one “purple” state”
If yer going in order, hate to break it to ya but NV is already lost. There are some gun laws that are actually looser in CA than in NV. UT & CO are lost, ID is running fast to catch up. Sure you can move to a rural area, but just like State of Jefferson territory you’re still subject to the laws passed by urban elected lefties.
If Proudman can’t be educated to embrace liberty and freedom in his new home state, then perhaps some tar and feathers could be used to change his ideology