Austin Clemens
@austinclemens2.bsky.social
Formerly Washington Center for Equitable Growth, now freelance visualizing the economy
Pinned
Which political events does media focus on most?
Categorizing every political article the WaPo and NYT wrote in 2024 and 2025 to-date to see how newspapers choose to focus coverage.
austinclemens.com
So people on here are always talking about how newspapers over/under-cover certain events. For example, that important Trump scandals are under-covered bc they jump to the next scandal. But is it true? I investigated! austinclemens.com/austinclemen...
Reposted by Austin Clemens
This double reality, where white supremacy is held out as the most obvious third rail in the United States while the federal government, many states and localities, universities, newsrooms, and various other institutions gleefully enact it...is frustrating.
The justices keep returning to the hypo of a Fed governor posting pro-Nazi videos to ask whether that would meet the bar for for-cause removal. The idea that this kind of content would obviously cross the line seems a bit farcical given some of the material that DHS regularly posts on social media
January 21, 2026 at 4:37 PM
This double reality, where white supremacy is held out as the most obvious third rail in the United States while the federal government, many states and localities, universities, newsrooms, and various other institutions gleefully enact it...is frustrating.
Reposted by Austin Clemens
I've said repeatedly that I will not support one dime of funding for Trump's lawless ICE operations.
The funding bill released today fails to sufficiently rein them in or ensure people's rights are protected.
I'm voting NO.
The funding bill released today fails to sufficiently rein them in or ensure people's rights are protected.
I'm voting NO.
January 21, 2026 at 2:20 AM
I've said repeatedly that I will not support one dime of funding for Trump's lawless ICE operations.
The funding bill released today fails to sufficiently rein them in or ensure people's rights are protected.
I'm voting NO.
The funding bill released today fails to sufficiently rein them in or ensure people's rights are protected.
I'm voting NO.
Reposted by Austin Clemens
Bizarre editorial choice by @nytimes.com to portray Trump's threats toward Europe as strong and fearsome rather than as a madman and unhinged tyrant spiraling out of control before our very eyes
January 20, 2026 at 6:27 PM
Bizarre editorial choice by @nytimes.com to portray Trump's threats toward Europe as strong and fearsome rather than as a madman and unhinged tyrant spiraling out of control before our very eyes
I read Nadella as "we haven't found a killer app for AI outside coding," and I think that's a pretty decent summary of where we are actually.
Microsoft CEO says AI “risks becoming a speculative bubble unless its use spreads beyond big tech companies and wealthy economies.” Brother you’re the one building this dogshit, we’re three years and hundreds of billions in, how have you not worked it out?
www.ft.com/content/2a29...
www.ft.com/content/2a29...
January 20, 2026 at 5:35 PM
I read Nadella as "we haven't found a killer app for AI outside coding," and I think that's a pretty decent summary of where we are actually.
So admittedly I haven't actually done a correlation on this but it sure seems like Bitcoin is closely following the S&P these days. That seems odd to me, because I would have thought that people use BTC as a hedge. Does anyone have an intuition about this?
January 20, 2026 at 5:32 PM
So admittedly I haven't actually done a correlation on this but it sure seems like Bitcoin is closely following the S&P these days. That seems odd to me, because I would have thought that people use BTC as a hedge. Does anyone have an intuition about this?
Reposted by Austin Clemens
Federal job cuts, the anti-DEI backlash and a broader cooldown in the labor market are hitting Black women especially hard. They are turning to each other to find their way through.
Important story from @jholman.bsky.social.
🎁🔗: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/17/b... #EconSky
Important story from @jholman.bsky.social.
🎁🔗: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/17/b... #EconSky
Black Women Turn to One Another as Their Career Paths Suddenly Recede
www.nytimes.com
January 20, 2026 at 1:46 PM
Federal job cuts, the anti-DEI backlash and a broader cooldown in the labor market are hitting Black women especially hard. They are turning to each other to find their way through.
Important story from @jholman.bsky.social.
🎁🔗: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/17/b... #EconSky
Important story from @jholman.bsky.social.
🎁🔗: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/17/b... #EconSky
Reposted by Austin Clemens
Arlit Maria Martinez is a mother of 4. Her son, Kevin, died of cancer while she was in ICE custody.
ICE refused her request to be at Kevin's side in his final moments. They must let her attend Kevin’s memorial.
Arlit, I hope you hear how many patriots stand with you.
ICE refused her request to be at Kevin's side in his final moments. They must let her attend Kevin’s memorial.
Arlit, I hope you hear how many patriots stand with you.
January 18, 2026 at 5:13 PM
Arlit Maria Martinez is a mother of 4. Her son, Kevin, died of cancer while she was in ICE custody.
ICE refused her request to be at Kevin's side in his final moments. They must let her attend Kevin’s memorial.
Arlit, I hope you hear how many patriots stand with you.
ICE refused her request to be at Kevin's side in his final moments. They must let her attend Kevin’s memorial.
Arlit, I hope you hear how many patriots stand with you.
Reposted by Austin Clemens
And they said Bluesky was just for left infighting.
January 18, 2026 at 5:06 PM
And they said Bluesky was just for left infighting.
This is quite sad actually – a government disinfo campaign that was mostly germinated by rich white MAHA influencers ends up disproportionately harming black and brown communities who often have low levels of trust in the medical establishment for good reason.
In the newsletter this week, I looked at county-level measles vaccination data to see what contributed to low vax rates. www.howtoreadthisch.art/americas-myr...
January 18, 2026 at 4:25 PM
This is quite sad actually – a government disinfo campaign that was mostly germinated by rich white MAHA influencers ends up disproportionately harming black and brown communities who often have low levels of trust in the medical establishment for good reason.
Reposted by Austin Clemens
This opens up wider questions about how far the UK and Canada in the 5 eyes intel sharing framework as well as other former allies of the United States can still provide the Americans with any sensitive intelligence information at all
January 18, 2026 at 12:44 PM
This opens up wider questions about how far the UK and Canada in the 5 eyes intel sharing framework as well as other former allies of the United States can still provide the Americans with any sensitive intelligence information at all
Reposted by Austin Clemens
NOEM IS LYING. I have seen people get taken! It was the same each time: armed men racing out of a blacked-out SUV, seizing a screaming or fleeing pedestrian, and pulling them into the car without any attempt to even learn their identity. Always a person alone on the street. Always a person of color.
January 18, 2026 at 3:26 PM
NOEM IS LYING. I have seen people get taken! It was the same each time: armed men racing out of a blacked-out SUV, seizing a screaming or fleeing pedestrian, and pulling them into the car without any attempt to even learn their identity. Always a person alone on the street. Always a person of color.
Picard is classically educated but in Time's Arrow he blunders into a classic Oedipus-type self-fulfilling prophecy. Really sloppy.
January 17, 2026 at 11:16 PM
Picard is classically educated but in Time's Arrow he blunders into a classic Oedipus-type self-fulfilling prophecy. Really sloppy.
Reposted by Austin Clemens
New QJE for the minimum wage literature uses IRS data to study effects on small and medium size businesses. The effects seem…very good
academic.oup.com/qje/article/...
academic.oup.com/qje/article/...
January 17, 2026 at 1:53 AM
New QJE for the minimum wage literature uses IRS data to study effects on small and medium size businesses. The effects seem…very good
academic.oup.com/qje/article/...
academic.oup.com/qje/article/...
Reposted by Austin Clemens
Monday you can fall apart
Tuesday, Wednesday, break my heart
Thursday doesn’t even start
Whiskey Friday with Tony Dokoupil
Tuesday, Wednesday, break my heart
Thursday doesn’t even start
Whiskey Friday with Tony Dokoupil
January 17, 2026 at 12:33 AM
Monday you can fall apart
Tuesday, Wednesday, break my heart
Thursday doesn’t even start
Whiskey Friday with Tony Dokoupil
Tuesday, Wednesday, break my heart
Thursday doesn’t even start
Whiskey Friday with Tony Dokoupil
Yikes!
Christ, this (from Lizza's latest) is pretty fucking damning of...literally the entire media(?) What the fuck?
January 17, 2026 at 2:46 AM
Yikes!
I read a random Life-man manga and it was unexpectedly heart-warming.
January 16, 2026 at 6:01 PM
I read a random Life-man manga and it was unexpectedly heart-warming.
... what system prompts even produce this behavior? Did Elon Musk write "you're kind of a nazi" in Grok's system prompt?
pretty sure he meant the other thing, grok, but very cool that those are your two things
January 16, 2026 at 5:54 PM
... what system prompts even produce this behavior? Did Elon Musk write "you're kind of a nazi" in Grok's system prompt?
Reposted by Austin Clemens
Reposted by Austin Clemens
If you are in line for Whiskey Friday with Tony Dokoupil, stay in line.
January 16, 2026 at 2:45 PM
If you are in line for Whiskey Friday with Tony Dokoupil, stay in line.
Reposted by Austin Clemens
Proud to be from Maryland, where at least I know I'm free.
The scale and speed of state censorship of campus really is amazing.
More than half of America's college students attend institutions in states that have passed laws censoring higher education since 2021.
From @penamerica.bsky.social
pen.org/report/ameri...
More than half of America's college students attend institutions in states that have passed laws censoring higher education since 2021.
From @penamerica.bsky.social
pen.org/report/ameri...
January 16, 2026 at 3:55 PM
Proud to be from Maryland, where at least I know I'm free.
“This picture reminds me of another thing that was the complete inverse of this thing.“
Articles like this, and public positions taken by prominent Catholic voices like Reno's, cannot be dismissed as exceptions anymore.
US Catholicism is in a state of moral schism.
US Catholicism is in a state of moral schism.
January 16, 2026 at 1:51 PM
“This picture reminds me of another thing that was the complete inverse of this thing.“
I think this economy could limp along like this for a while and it has only reinforced my opinion that the U.S. fiscal policy response to the pandemic is one of the greatest economic policy success stories in history.
January 15, 2026 at 2:40 PM
I think this economy could limp along like this for a while and it has only reinforced my opinion that the U.S. fiscal policy response to the pandemic is one of the greatest economic policy success stories in history.
Why would you not immediately cut off this speaker and say "just a note for our viewers, there are no paid protestors."
"You're seeing a lot of paid protesters" -- Rep. Mike Haridopolos's attempt to defend ICE's tactics in Minneapolis during a CNN panel discussion this morning did not go well. Bad used car salesman vibes.
January 15, 2026 at 2:35 PM
Why would you not immediately cut off this speaker and say "just a note for our viewers, there are no paid protestors."