Henry Burke

A genuine image from Third Way's moderation conference, truly remarkable

Obama Campaign Manager Jim Messina is up on stage as the last event of the day. He cites being anti crypto, anti prediction markets and anti gambling as why Democrats are losing young men. Messina is on the board of Blockchain .com and lobbied for the American Gaming Association

Yglesias, eager to keep the attention on labor unions decides to talk about COVID school closures (four years after they ceased to be a thing) and use them as an example for why unions are bad. Congressman Auchincloss says they can be one of the evil "groups" but tries to deflect

SF DA Brooke Jenkins decides to jump in here, announces that in SF, they're at a "reckoning point" with unions for their mistreatment of billionaires. Yglesias enthusiastically nods along as Jenkins attacks a proposed wealth tax, claiming billionaires "are giving more than most"

On a panel moderated by Matt Yglesias, Cleveland mayor Justin Bibb explains that he's embraced public-private partnerships, but does so with project-labor agreements to bring unions in. The third way audience does not seem enthused by this, it's not very abundance

Remarkable quote from SF DA Brooke Jenkins here: "We have figured out how to message to the ordinary person —I call them the 'silent majority'"

We desperately need more history education in this country if elected officials think they made up this term. Richard Nixon rolling in his grave smdh

While most people are preoccupied with the war with Iran, Third Way is hosting a conference in Charleston on how moderates can crush the left in 2028. No mention of the war so far this morning, but their 15 viewers have enjoyed plenty of GenXers making "jokes" in GenZ slang!

I think we need a way to keep powerful people from associating with rich pedophiles. A nudge perhaps?

Huh, who could've foreseen Fetterman being wrong again

In her defense, Sinema has struggled to find a job since leaving office. She only has gigs as an advisor for Coinbase, a senior advisor for Hogan Lovells, co-chair of the AI Infrastructure Coalition, distinguished professor of practice at ASU and the CEO of the Arizona Business Roundtable

It's good to see more centrist Dems embracing the fight against AI cash, but as I wrote about back in December, this push was fueled by the crypto industry's success at strong-arming Congressional Dems. Want to stand up to AI? Stand up to crypto first.

What the Democrats Need to Do Now To win back working-class voters, they need to signal more clearly to working people that they are on their side. That means picking fights on their behalf with the bad actors who are making their liv...

We agree with a lot of @mjtoma.bsky.social diagnoses of what ails the Democratic Party in his lengthy piece entitled "What the Democrats Need to Do Now" for @newrepublic.com, but his identification of the need for a visible enemy is particularly important. We've been making a similar case for years

Obviously really bad but also not something that can be blamed on Trump. It appears to date back to the Clinton administration, though it had a disclaimer back then about his antisemitism which appears to have been removed under Bush.

GMU libertarian abundance economics professor is somehow unaware that taking out a life insurance policy against a stranger without their consent is illegal insurance fraud

Who defines the public interest? When NYC yellow cabs held a short strike to protest the Trump muslim ban in 2017 (yes I know the New York Taxi Workers Alliance is not a traditional union) were they striking against the public interest? I don't think so, but Trump would disagree!

The logical extension of this argument is to ban the freedom to associate with your fellow employees in the private sector as well, lest you collectively demand something of the government. That's not even addressing the fact that the "public interest" is totally nebulous

This is the pernicious logic of anti-group dogma at work. The idea that a group of individuals would collectively assemble to demand something of their government is a conspiracy against "the taxpayer" and must be banned. (of course, billionaire-backed abundance groups are exempt from this logic)

Pretending like public sector unions are unique in their ability to demand something from the government is ridiculous. Private sector unions regularly demand stuff that can be contrary to the public interest! Tariffs, subsidies etc are all common demands

I have been yelled at endlessly for alleging that "Abundance" might not be as liberal as it makes itself out to be. The past few days, prominent abundance figures have made my case for me, calling for the complete banning of public sector unions and calling teachers "mostly-useless people"

How Not to Defeat Authoritarianism Moderation used to help Democrats win, but its advantages now have been greatly exaggerated.

Was happy to be contribute a response to @adambonica.bsky.social and @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social piece on the benefits (or lack thereof) of moderation for the BostonReview. I encourage everyone to read their piece and the responses, the forum does a great job of allowing for nuanced public debate

He’s a “reformed” Nazi who isn’t actually very reformed at all

You forgot his argument that there’s a dangerous slippery slope to age of consent laws

You forgot his argument that there’s a dangerous slippery slope to age of consent laws

This might be the first time we’ve learned what Larry Summers’ going rate was for his countless advisory positions. At 1:06, Epstein tells Barack “Andreessen Horowitz. They pay Larry a million dollars a year… just to advise them,” seemingly telling the PM to get a similar fake job

An abundance of conservative Supreme Court justices!

I’d like to thank Merrick Garland today. He had 4 years with access to this information and did absolutely nothing with it. Where would we be without his commitment intent to shirking his duty? Probably in a better world! But hey, not appearing partisan is far more important than enforcing the law

Feel good story: Larry Summers was emailing Jeffrey Epstein, complaining about how his kids admired Bernie Sanders.

Absolutely hilarious for your children to admire a man unrelentingly focused on undoing your life’s work

When the AI bubble pops, it’s going to be made so much worse by having an inflation hawk like Warsh leading the Fed. It won’t matter if Dems are in control and pass stimulus packages if Warsh matches it with rate hikes. The AI recession will last much longer than it should

Project 2025 explicitly called for the elimination of the Fed’s dual mandate, jettisoning any obligation for the Fed to care about unemployment. The result would be a Fed that doesn’t care about working people suffering in the next recession. That’s Warsh’s whole thing

In 2009, with nearly 10% unemployment, Kevin Warsh was worried about one thing: inflation. The guy couldn’t be bothered to care about the unemployment rate.

His nomination is about Trump’s war on the Fed, for sure. But it’s also about Project 2025’s war on the dual mandate