Galt Bastiat

[Arthur MacWaters @ArthurMacwaters]

Let me get this straight

- In 1913, zero American families paid income tax.

- In 2025, every family paid income tax, and about 2/3rds of it just covered fraud.

We have become a tax-farm for politicians to enrich themselves and anyone who they can import to vote for them

[Chamath Palihapitiya @chamath]

“Stocks have crashed. Something is broken.”

“The US Dollar index has crashed. Something is broken.”

Stocks are back to where they were in May 2024. P/E ratios are mean reverting back towards historical norms.

The US Dollar index is back to where it was in September 2024.

Perhaps this is when we need to take a deep breath and question who actually wants us to believe these hysteria inducing headlines?

[Galt Bastiat @GaltBastiat]

@anish_koka “Non-profit” youth soccer clubs are another grift. Mini-monopolies all over the US.

One example…
https://t.co/ikxIdGRvsB

[Vivek Ramaswamy @VivekGRamaswamy]

The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born & first-generation engineers over “native” Americans isn’t because of an innate American IQ deficit (a lazy & wrong explanation). A key part of it comes down to the c-word: culture. Tough questions demand tough answers & if we’re really serious about fixing the problem, we have to confront the TRUTH:

Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long (at least since the 90s and likely longer). That doesn’t start in college, it starts YOUNG.

A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers.

A culture that venerates Cory from “Boy Meets World,” or Zach & Slater over Screech in “Saved by the Bell,” or ‘Stefan’ over Steve Urkel in “Family Matters,” will not produce the best engineers.

(Fact: I know *multiple* sets of immigrant parents in the 90s who actively limited how much their kids could watch those TV shows precisely because they promoted mediocrity…and their kids went on to become wildly successful STEM graduates).

More movies like Whiplash, fewer reruns of “Friends.” More math tutoring, fewer sleepovers. More weekend science competitions, fewer Saturday morning cartoons. More books, less TV. More creating, less “chillin.” More extracurriculars, less “hanging out at the mall.”

Most normal American parents look skeptically at “those kinds of parents.” More normal American kids view such “those kinds of kids” with scorn. If you grow up aspiring to normalcy, normalcy is what you will achieve.

Now close your eyes & visualize which families you knew in the 90s (or even now) who raise their kids according to one model versus the other. Be brutally honest.

“Normalcy” doesn’t cut it in a hyper-competitive global market for technical talent. And if we pretend like it does, we’ll have our asses handed to us by China.

This can be our Sputnik moment. We’ve awaken from slumber before & we can do it again. Trump’s election hopefully marks the beginning of a new golden era in America, but only if our culture fully wakes up. A culture that once again prioritizes achievement over normalcy; excellence over mediocrity; nerdiness over conformity; hard work over laziness.

That’s the work we have cut out for us, rather than wallowing in victimhood & just wishing (or legislating) alternative hiring practices into existence. I’m confident we can do it. 🇺🇸 🇺🇸

[Kaizen D. Asiedu @thatsKAIZEN]

America’s biggest problem with racism is treating racism like it’s still America’s biggest problem.

[Galt Bastiat @GaltBastiat]

@ada_dono_pool @JaromirTesar @SundaeSwap Was Sundae the only DEX involved?

[Martin Kulldorff @MartinKulldorff]

Covid masks, vaccine mandates, lockdowns and school closures were pseudo-science, just like leeches, lobotomy and eugenics.

[Galt Bastiat @GaltBastiat]

@YesThatBrooke @ImCollegeSoccer Promotion/Relegation and building player development pathways for local clubs and high schools would help.

Most programs have little to no connection with their communities.

Likelihood of this happening is slim I would imagine.

[Galt Bastiat @GaltBastiat]

@ImCollegeSoccer How do you see this impacting…

1. The amount of foreign vs American players on D1 rosters?

2. Pay-to-play and the scholarship carrot promoted to parents?

@3four3

[Eric Weinstein @ericweinstein]

It’s not a bad take at all from 2022!

But I think we can and should now build upon it and take it much further in 2024.

The new version of the Democratic Party, together with its supportive media and subservient universities are in the process of embittering and radicalizing *EVERY* single last US dissenter. Literally everyone who dissents from the party narratives is coming to despise the leadership of the party and its media. Name me the independent Democratic Party dissenters, who are huge fans of the Biden/Harris ticket. They don’t exist. They aren’t real. Here’s why.

Tell me if you recognize the following playbook:

“That seems odd.” —->Conspiracy Theorist!

“I’m thinking of starting my own newsletter/podcast/channel to discuss and explore what I don’t see discussed in mainstream media and academe.” —-> Grifter!! Narcissist!

“Trump is actually making kind of an effective point.” —-> Cancelled!

“I actually looked at the data and primary sources which don’t say exactly what you are claiming.” ——> Ha ha. Dunning-Kruger!

“I don’t know that I fully agree with that.” —-> Far Right extremist!

“I have a different take on that.” —-> Charlatan. Total charlatan.

“There is weirdly an interesting parallel there between two different points.” ——> Stay in your lane!

“This DEI agenda seems pretty extreme in a bunch of places.” ——-> Bigot!

Etc.

——————

I have watched the White House invite relatively random ‘influencers’ for briefings. But no one who actually has their own ideas. No one at all.

The party is increasingly about one thing:
“Let us think for you. Let us be your eyes and your ears. Make our new words and phrases into your language. Let our talking point memos be your dinner table conversation perspectives. Surrender.”

And everyone with a soul or a dissenting idea in their head starts looking rightwards whether or not they have ANY INTEREST at all in Republican ideas. I don’t look to the Republican Party for ideas or platform planks. I think only about one thing: “Can I afford to think for myself here?”

Quite honestly, I can’t think around the true believers in the Democratic Party. My brain doesn’t work around this totalitarian gaslighting.

And I assure you this is why Joe Biden is going to lose as this continues: you cannot gaslight an entire nation of free people into hating each other this completely for this long.

Biden has dementia and cognitive loss. He has for some time. Harris is not fit to command the army. I didn’t create that. I merely observed it. For YEARS.

But pretending that *everyone* who sees a buck naked emperor is a charlatan is no longer working very well.

The emperor is naked and has been for some time. He has been protected by a party leadership that needs to be retired.

The Democratic Party leadership is sending almost all smart people fleeing for no other reason than that smart free people want to retain the right to dissent without character assasination.

Sooner or later, we all feel like Elon does when shat upon. Everyone. Full stop.

🙏

[Todd Beane @_ToddBeane]

U12-U16 Coaches Take Note 👇

Please see the brains, not just the brawn. 🙏

▪️ “While physical and physiological factors are better predictors of progression early in development, psychological, technical and tactical factors are more important later on.

▪️ So at an early age athletes may be deselected based on measures that become less important in higher age groups and at senior levels.”

(The Best by Williams & Wigmore)

#TOVO

[Drew Holden @DrewHolden360]

🧵THREAD🧵

“15 days to slow the spread” kicked off four years ago Saturday, sending the media into perhaps its most deranged cycle of my lifetime.

I dove back into some of the worst lockdown media coverage from those early days.

Buckle in, this one’s long. ⤵️

[Martyr Made @martyrmade]

People underestimate (or are not in a position to understand) how powerful it is for people to see Trump being attacked by the same people who have been maligning them in media and politics for years. Critics can say that that Trump is not a true enemy of the Establishment since he did x, y, or z, but it’s obvious to Trump supporters that the same powerful people who hate them also hate Trump, and that they hate Trump for taking their side.

I remember one middle-aged woman somewhere in Ohio being asked why she supported Trump. Was it his immigration policy, trade policy, what was it? She said: “Because he sticks up for us.”

It’s like the cool kids - the varsity QB, the homecoming queen, etc - sitting in the front of the class, forever bullying and mocking the “losers” in the back of class, who don’t play sports or cheerlead because their families are poor and they have to work after school. One day, one of the offensive linemen from the football team picks up and moves to the back of the class and starts giving it back to the cool kids. All the cool kids attack him, but he doesn’t care, he’s from their world and knows they’re nothing special, and anyway, they can’t threaten him because he’s too big, so he just keeps giving it back to him on the losers’ behalf. That guy would be a folk hero to the kids in the back, no matter how much of an obnoxious, vulgar buffoon he might be.

The kids in the front of the class - i.e. a pretty blonde woman who glides through life with door after door inexplicably opening before her - will never get it. They will always assume evil or irrational motives behind the linemen’s move, and they’ll imagine that the kids in back only support him out of jealousy and resentment toward the cool kids.

[Galt Bastiat @GaltBastiat]

@Attackwatch1 @tomsan106 💯

If I understand the landscape correctly, on the current trajectory college soccer will be dominated by foreigners on both the men’s and women’s sides, particularly as the women’s game grows globally.

What narrative will these clubs sell families, if this plays out?

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

DEI, because it discriminates on the basis of race, gender and many other factors, is not merely immoral, it is also illegal

[Devon Eriksen @Devon_Eriksen_]

How is this man being selected as the CEO of OpenAI, however briefly, when he is still groping in the dark, struggling to understand even the most basic of concepts behind his own civilization?

Has it never occurred to him to wonder why hunter-gatherer societies don't have a concept of personal land ownership, but agricultural societies do?

All of the human technology stack is based upon investment. Not merely in the modern, financial, sense, but the investment of effort.

If I am a protohuman, using a stone as a pounding tool, I do not care if you take my stone. I will simply pick up another stone. But if I chip my stone into a spearhead, then I will not let you take my spearhead, because that would take away the effort I have invested.

From the moment humans gained the ability to build and farm, land became something they could invest effort in.

And land ownership became necessary so they would do that.

All of the bullshit ya'll think is so important: governments, laws, philosophical principles about rights, etc... these are all just tools, possible means of protecting investment.

It doesn't matter what set of tools you use, so long as they work and investments are protected. If a man can be certain his investments will not be taken away from him by parasites, thieves, and robbers, he will invest. If he is certain that they will, he will not invest.

And without that investment, you have nothing. You are literally a wild animal, living as wild animals do.

If you don't want that, you need the concept of property. It doesn't matter where you say it "comes from", whether that be god(s), "natural" rights, abstract philosophical concepts, whatever. And it doesn't matter how you enforce it, whether it be laws, police, and courts, armed property owners, a high-society where people are conditioned not to steal, or all of the above.

What matters is that somehow, some way, people get to keep and benefit from what they invest in.

Because the alternative is universally unacceptable to us: reversion to a non-technological state of existence.

[Galt Bastiat @GaltBastiat]

@THEChrisKessell @theactualsoccer @USL_HQ @MLS This would align with how our local MLSNext club is positioning itself.

Our club also specifically took over another club, as a way to join GA.

I wonder if MLSNext’s inclusion of a “girls” dropdown and blank holder for the league section foreshadows a GA relationship upcoming.

[Galt Bastiat @GaltBastiat]

@THEChrisKessell @theactualsoccer @USL_HQ @MLS If they use MLSNext Pro+ as D2 & “incorporate” current MLSNext youth clubs & others, who have NPSL, etc. teams into D3 & D4, they can control and restrict growth in a # of ways, while claiming formation of a pyramid for all ages. Close system control from rec to D1 across US.

[Galt Bastiat @GaltBastiat]

@jonjohnson Foundation is being built even @ earliest recreation ages (4/5 y/o).

Kick & run is pervasive. Oldest, biggest, strongest & fastest are majority of those left participating by end of season.

30-50% attrition every spring & fall with our local recreation program.

[Galt Bastiat @GaltBastiat]

@theblackgatsby_ I understand it can be difficult to assess emotion & intent online.

My ? was simply a ? without implication or inference.

The incentives seem to be aligned against delivering accurate outcomes/info for many sources.

What sources do you find accurate?