Austin Clemens

Looking back on the video where Jesus is super into having a guy start a small business instead of multiplying loaves and fishes

johnknefel @johnknefel Here's U.S. Grant talking about Robert E Lee's surrender, saying "We were just caught on the opposite side of things."

One PragerU children's video features Christopher Columbus explaining to 21st Century children that they shouldn't judge him for enslaving Native Americans because slavery was common in his day and "being taken as a slave is better than being killed."

Don’t worry though I’m sure the secular stuff is better

This is so fucking stupid

Can't praise BEA enough - not just the best data on income inequality in the US but makes us a world leader on the production of these kinds of statistics.

Forgot to link the BEA post, with links to their articles on the methods.

Next year they will have this data in January. So in January of 2026, we will have estimates of income growth and shares of income by quintile for 2025, a really incredible turnaround.

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"They’re going to kill us here little by little, no one pays attention to us. I’ve been here for 30 days seeing injustice and mistreatment, it doesn’t stop. They abuse us in every way—with the food, in the bathroom, everything, everything." Important reporting from @statuscoupnews.bsky.social

Both wealth and income values have been adjusted for inflation using the Personal Consumption Expenditures Index.

Graphs from the U.S. Inequality Tracker inequalitytracker.equitablegrowth.org/dashboard/

A graph from the U.S. Inequality Tracker showing that the 4th quintile's share of income has fallen over the 21st century. It peaked just under 21%, averaged about 19.8%, and is currently around 19%.

With the result that the 4th quintile has falling income share in the economy.

Cumulative real income growth for the 4th quntile between 2000 and 2023. It reaches 60% by 2023, lower than the 62-72% that other groups, like the lower 50 (about 73), Next 40 (61%) and Top 10 (70%) received over the same period.

You can see it pretty clearly on the U.S. Inequality Tracker. Here's the 4th quintile's cumulative income growth compared to other groups, for the entirety of the 20th century so far.

Slow wage growth is the key to understanding U.S. inequality in the 21st century Equitable Growth's U.S. Inequality Tracker tracks income and wealth inequality and highlights how particular components of income and wealth shape trends.

This is nominal, so you can discount by PCE inflation of about 2.5% last year to get a sense of real growth. It's a slight reversal of fortune for that 4th quintile. I scrutinized the BEA data closely a couple weeks ago and found that group has lagged others in the 20th century.

Table displaying the share and growth of Personal Income across income quintiles for 2023 and 2024. The table has three columns: “2023 Share of PI (Published)”, “2024 Share of PI (Nowcast)”, and “2024 Growth in PI (Nowcast)”. It includes five rows corresponding to income quintiles: • Q1 (0–20%):  2023 Share of PI: 5.3  2024 Share of PI: 5.2  2024 Growth in PI: 2.7% • Q2 (20–40%):  2023 Share of PI: 9.6  2024 Share of PI: 9.5  2024 Growth in PI: 4.1% • Q3 (40–60%):  2023 Share of PI: 13.5  2024 Share of PI: 13.4  2024 Growth in PI: 4.8% • Q4 (60–80%):  2023 Share of PI: 19.0  2024 Share of PI: 19.3  2024 Growth in PI: 7.2% • Q5 (80–100%):  2023 Share of PI: 52.6  2024 Share of PI: 52.6  2024 Growth in PI: 5.5%

Really cool – BEA has brand new estimates of how income inequality changed in 2024, with growth by quintile and share of income by quintile. Given the available data, this is quite hard to do, and a really impressive feat by BEA economists.

There’s a difference between Fed independence and Fed omnipotence.
After the Trump's attempt at BLS interference it's not clear financial elites (or judicial ones) get it.

-me

www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-o...

Remember this image every time someone tells you that protesters are "hurting their cause."

Those people are the red bars. In 40 years, we'll look back at them the same way.

If anything shouldn't rate cuts help American companies adjust to the tariff shock

Weed saves lives - opioid deaths are 30% lower in counties with cannabis dispensaries

Lutnick Disbanded Statistical Task Force Working to Improve Survey Response Rates | National Review The Trump administration is mad about the exact thing the committee was working on during its final meeting.

Lutnick Disbanded Statistical Task Force Working to Improve Survey Response Rates www.nationalreview.com/corner/lutni...

Good visualization of first, second, and third estimates over recent period.
www.csmonitor.com/Business/202...

As Redfin's Chief Economist, I rely on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for housing forecasts. I support the National Association of Business Economists’ statement condemning the firing of the BLS commissioner. Trustworthy data is crucial for business decisions and should remain apolitical.

It’s the only thing that makes all these investment promises make sense. Feels like foreign trade reps are all on a text chain where they post “I told Trump we will invest $500bn in US economy lmao”

The Kills version of Dreams
The Make-up Hey Joe
Patti Smith’s Smells Like Teen Spirit
Eels’ Living Life

I love a good cover.

Bill Maher is an unfunny hack who has trafficked in the most boring and predictable middle aged white dude grievance for 20 years now.

But whatever…if he were actually funny!

Love taking a big rip of my vape while I listen to Medicate by AFI

From left to right, Dr. Albert Mulenga, William Tae Heung Kim, Dr. Thu Thuy Nguyen, Dr. Alex Kiarie Gaithuma, Dr Hassan Hakimi and Emily Bencosme Cuevas. Kim is a Texas A&M researcher who was detained in San Francisco last Monday despite being a permanent resident of the United States and a green card holder. COURTESY OF TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY

I NEED to tell you the story of Tae Heung “William” Kim.

He's a graduate student at Texas A&M where he's working on a vaccine for Lyme disease.

He's a *legal permanent resident* of the United States.

And he's been in ICE detention for 12 days & counting, transferred Tuesday to South Texas.

This really is the tradeoff, so this is great reporting. The thing is, we have a lot of empirical evidence that one side of the tradeoff (losing moral high ground) is almost costless in modern American politics. The only people in the whole system who care about norms are Dem/liberal elites

Texas legislators bet the ranch A Republican plan that gambles on Hispanic voters

The first draft plan for mid-decade redistricting in Texas is out. Is it a Texas jigsaw massacre, or an episode of Desperate House lines?

It looks like a little of both. A deep dive: samwang.substack.com/p/texas-legi...

How did it manage to get votes in parliament though?

Woman who died of heart disease in ICE custody reportedly told son she wasn't allowed to see doctor for chest pains Questions about the death of Marie Blaise at a South Florida ICE detention center have lingered since she collapsed in April.

Latest: I got the medical examiner report on Marie Blaise, who died of a heart attack in ICE custody

Blaise's son told an investigator that he spoke with her on the phone the day of her death, and she complained of chest pains and said staff wouldn't let her see a doctor reason.com/2025/07/30/w...

'No Other Land' Contributor Odeh Hadalin Killed in West Bank Settler Attack Odeh Hadalin, a contributor to the Oscar-winning documentary 'No Other Land,' was reportedly killed in an attack by Israeli settlers in the West Bank.

Palestinian activist Odeh Hadalin (a.k.a. Awdah Hathaleen), who was featured in the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, was shot to death in the West Bank on Monday.

The Trump administration is pulling investigators off of child exploitation and sex trafficking cases. Given Donald Trump's track record with Jeffrey Epstein, it shouldn't be a surprise that he's willing to let sex traffickers off the hook.

Taiwan president scraps Latin America trip amid reports the US opposed stopover in New York The Taiwanese government insists Lai Ching-te’s visit was delayed due to domestic issues, including natural disasters and tariff negotiations

Tbf, they also tried selling out Taiwan www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...