KidSaleen

Poor Kid, Idaho, Racelessness, UGA, SysAdmin, DevOps, InfoSec, Music, Lyricists, Guitar Solos, PoliSci, History, Liberalism, Sports, Liquor, Wine, & my girl.

[timour kosters @timourxyz]

"GPT-6 Astra, use Ableton Live and make an absolute banger".

AGI is here.

[Phil Magness @PhilWMagness]

This is simply not accurate. Cotton accounted for about 6% of GDP at its peak - a large output, but nowhere near enough to be the driver of US economic growth.

Before the Civil War, the south consistently lagged far behind the north in most economic indicators and in immigration inflows (note: immigrants generally settle where there are jobs).

The notion that "slavery built America" is not only empirically wrong - it's a hapless rehabilitation of the old "King Cotton" theory of economic development that was peddled by the plantation class before the Civil War...and then debunked in realtime by the war itself.

[Urban Analytic Nonsense @AnalyticBS4U]

You all dislike Thomas Sowell so much, but you’d deeply benefit from reading his culture trilogy.

Racial inequality predates American capitalism. Groups had different standards of living before white men sailed the seas. There were even “intra-racial” differences among different groups of Europeans.

You can see this in the white groups that settled this land: generational Alabamans and West Virginians have different values and life outcomes than generational families along the Boston–Washington corridor. No one would call this “WHITE SUPREMACY.”

Once you look at black–white differences in the proper international context, the “wealth gap” has been minimized for descendants of black American slaves. The gap is much larger between Africans and Europeans in our initial homelands.

Cotton was only about 5–7% of GNP. Exports ≠ national output. You have to take a deeper look at history.

(See comments)

[Noam Dworman @noam_dworman]

Kmele with the KO!

[Kmele 🖐 @kmele]

Marc - Which things aren’t true?

Direct quotes, please.

- Kmele (we’ve met — a few times)

[Steve Guest @SteveGuest]

On CNN NewsNight, The Atlantic’s Jemele Hill argues that capitalism is oppressive and bound up in white supremacy.

Kmele Foster: “It's one thing to not think capitalism isn't working ideally. It's another thing entirely to insist that it is oppressive, that it is bound up with white supremacy.

Hill: “How is it not?”

Foster: “I've always preferred Adam Smith's description of capitalism as the natural system of liberty. The idea that people can own property, that they can exchange it freely with one another for profit, that they can find ways to put their resources to good use and profit in a way that is actually beneficial to everyone else, that there can be gains from trade that are mutually beneficial. These are foundational ideas that have created more wealth than any other system in human history. That is what capitalism is! That is not white supremacy.”

Hill: “Do you think capitalism has always worked that way?”

Foster: “I've actually just described the basic facts of the economics.”

Hill: “That ain't how it's always worked.”

Foster: “Slavery is an institution that is older than writing. It predates capitalism. The notion that white supremacy and all these other things are bound up with capitalism in an intrinsic and fundamental way is so absurd and laughable, it barely needs to be defended.”

Hill: “How was it absurd?”

Foster: “It barely needs to be defended.”

Hill: “What do you mean it barely needs to be defended?”

Foster: “You actually have to articulate what the connections is. How are these two things the same? I'm talking about private property, the right to exchange and sell with whomever you like. What does that have to do with white supremacy? … What is the white supremacy dynamic of private property?“

[Ian Miller @ianmSC]

My goodness Kmele Foster just absolutely dismantled Jemele Hill here. What an obliteration.

[ZalinskySilverworks @ZalinskyS]

@jemelehill This is wrong. Slavery had no effect on America becoming a "world economic power". It was the Industrial Revolution that vaulted the US into an economic power.

Look at this chart. The red line is where slavery ended.

[Colin Wright @SwipeWright]

The current system, whatever it happens to be, will always struggle to compete against a theoretical alternative.

That's because the current system is interacting with a very complex and messy reality, while the alternative only exists in the frictionless realm of your mind.

[Ilya Shapiro @ishapiro]

.@kmele isn’t just a good dude; he’s really, really smart.

[Sage Steele @sagesteele]

Yep. Easy concept that apparently not everyone has the ability to understand, despite benefiting from it in every aspect of their lives.
Thank you, @kmele

[Boomertarian Norm @BoomertarianN]

This is @kmele at his best. I would not be able to construct a sentence in that environment. He constructs an essay.

[KidSaleen @KidSaleen]

@TheStalwart Gain of function labs for ai.

[Stephen Moore @StephenMoore]

Data centers helped resurrect Quincy, Washington.The poverty rate fell from 29.4% to 6.2%. 

Tech tax revenue funded a new high school, hospital, library, police and fire stations, while residents’ property tax rates decreased.

Build data centers in communities that want jobs, investment, and economic revival!

[KidSaleen @KidSaleen]

@emmma_camp_ @WSJFreeEx Please keep posting your stuff on Instagram/reels too.

[Andy Masley @AndyMasley]

I do really wish anyone covering this could just pause to give some context instead of saying locals are "worried about water and farmland and utility bills." Do the numbers in the area actually back this up? We're always left not knowing.

[Graham Coffey @GrahamCoffeyDC]

This is reason #1,479 while I’ll never begrudge any RB for taking the opportunity to go pro as soon as they can

It’s also another reason why the decision that Nick and Sony made to come back to UGA in 2017 represented a massive gift given to the program

That year, Georgia transformed. They made their first playoff, came back from 17 down in the Rose Bowl, beat Florida 42-7 and Tennessee 41-0. It was the season when they began to believe that they could be as dominant as anyone else.

The 8 seasons since then and the two national titles that came next were built in that foundation. Those two and Carter and Bellamy made a longterm impact on the competitive culture of the program. In the pre-NIL era, they probably gave away 8 figures of potential future earnings to help lead a program to a new level.

[SportsCenter @SportsCenter]

The end of an era 💔

With Nick Chubb announcing his retirement, this elite trio of Georgia running backs all retired at 30 years old or younger 🥺

[Richard Dawkins @RichardDawkins]

I am bewildered, and not very impressed, by the visceral, naked, irrational hatred spat out by some defenders of Jason Arday. If a Cambridge professor is accused of being an unqualified charlatan, the accusation might be racially motivated. On the other hand it might not, depending on the evidence. The correct question to ask is not, ”What is the colour of his skin” but “Is it in fact true that he is an unqualified charlatan?” Please examine the evidence before leaping to the assumption of racism.
As for the idea that journalists “piled in on him” and “hounded him to his death”, most attacks were against Cambridge University. Jason himself was widely regarded as an unfortunate victim of foolish promotion way beyond his ability to cope. In appointing him to a professorship for which he was manifestly unqualified – in ludicrously describing him as “the best in the world” – certain senior members of the university showed a level of patronising condescension towards black people that could fairly be described as racism, while at the same time making him tragically vulnerable to such attacks as came his way.

[Destiny | Steven Bonnell II @TheOmniLiberal]

This might be the dumbest tweet I’ve read in my entire life. When can we go back to adult politics?