Henry Burke

Really influential abundance guy wrote this

Please do not denigrate one of the abundance movement’s great thinkers

Really glad to correct this post and see Newsom threaten to withhold state funding from schools that comply with Trump’s dictates

Guy looking at feudal lords living in castles, wearing fancy plate armor and concluding that it’s the peasants living in small huts in the fields, wearing hairshirts who must be the real oppressors in this situation

Finally decided to give the book you all have been talking about a read. I feel like all the reviews have been really misleading, I’m not getting the same vibe at all

Tough break for Alex Trembath and all the other abundists who insisted this is a "bottom-up" movement. Looks the speech delivered at the Abundance Conference just three weeks ago is hilariously out of touch with reality.

They've erected a 12 foot tall statue of the President of the United States of America requesting, and receiving a payoff. They aren't just okay with the corruption, they're celebrating it.

Launching a new think tank where we celebrate corporate sellouts advising our candidates. The proof is in the pudding. (I am unaware of who actually won the 2024 election, can someone inform me?)

The Trump administration has negotiated a sweetheart deal for the purchase of TikTok by American firms. It just so happens that these firms are tied to Trump supporters. Some already have experience manipulating traditional news sources in a pro-Trump direction. Is TikTok next?

For all his tough talk, I haven’t once seen Gavin Newsom defend UCLA or Berkeley from the Trump administration’s attacks. It’s embarrassing. You would think the Governor would stand up to protect the country’s two best public universities, which he happens to oversee, but so far it’s crickets

Bean was also once floated as a the conservative, pro-bank alternative to an Elizabeth Warren-headed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Not really building confidence that she's devoted to raising taxes on billionaires and cracking down on corporate malfeasance

When in Congress, Bean fought against Dodd-Frank, the post-2008 regulation of banks, and tried to limit state consumer protection laws, to protect the bottom line of financial institutions

In 2014 she was rewarded by JP Morgan Chase CEO, Jamie Dimon, who made her head of their Midwest business

Bean is running in a D+19 district, and says she "can no longer sit on the sidelines as Trump and Republicans decimate health care, give billionaires tax breaks"

Her post-Congressional career (after losing in 2011) included running the "executives club of Chicago" and the largest bank in the US...

I think it transcends “hot takes” when your newsletter becomes widely read in the west wing and you’re considered an insightful guy with good policy ideas

These speakers were not surprise guests. Demsas knew they would be there. So why protest their inclusion in abundance now, after the event is over, and not before, when she could threaten to pull out of the event if they were included? Because it's just ass-covering. She doesn’t really care

Demsas happily spoke at the abundance conference last week, knowing that Charles Lehman of "Deportation abundance" fame, Samuel Hammond of "The EA case for Trump" and Thomas Hochman of "the YIMBY case for alligator Alcatraz" would be there.

Now that she got pushback she's trying to backpedal

Alec Stapp, Institute for Progress: “Excited to see Burgum land a cabinet role in the new administration. He’s a YIMBY abundance guy”

Matt Yglesias: Burgum is “a totally solid pick who’ll do good things”

Alex Trembath, Breakthrough, on Burgum’s appointment: “We are entering an era of abundance”

yeah a lot of countries do have that rule, and it means this was one of the few issues the US was better on

I mean it's the second part that's really bad. But also isn't a national ID card system largely irrelevant now that RealID enforces a standard across states?

April of this year: Matt Yglesias Tweets his support for a national ID system that allows the government to demand you prove your citizenship at any given time.

Yesterday: Matt Yglesias finally realizes the downside of this fascist policy when he realizes this could apply to him too

Chris Wright Tweet that says: "Even if you wrapped the entire planet in a solar panel, you would only be producing 20% of global energy. One of the biggest mistakes politicians can make is equating the ELECTRICITY with ENERGY!" along with a note that thoroughly debunks this claim

Secretary of Energy Chris Wright Oil and gas magnate Chris Wright is perhaps the single most popular Trump appointee among the Abundance crowd. Politico described his nomination as having brought together “unlikely friends” to support “Chris Wright’s ‘energy abundance’ future” and as being backed by “the loose coalition of analysts and writers pushing for an ‘abundance agenda.’” Inclusive Abundance’s Derek Kaufman has praised Wright’s appointment as a win for abundance and helpfully pointed out that “The word ‘abundance’ appears 11 times in the confirmation hearing transcript for President Trump’s nominee to run the Department of Energy, Chris Wright. It was invoked by Senators across the political spectrum, ranging from Mike Lee (R-UT) to Bill Cassidy (R-LA) to Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) to Martin Heinrich (D-NM).” In their $120 million abundance grant announcement, Open Philanthropy celebrated the conservative embrace of abundist ideas, citing Wright’s appointment as evidence. “On the right, President Trump has issued an executive order focused on reducing energy costs […] and Secretary of Energy Chris Wright has argued for the removal of burdensome regulations on nuclear power.” Institute for Progress’ Aidan Mackenzie also praised Chris Wright’s nomination, saying “Both Burgum and Chris Wright seem committed to an all-of-the-above approach to energy; they’re very pro-oil and gas, but they’re also excited about forms of clean energy, especially nuclear and geothermal.” The Breakthrough Institute’s Alex Trembath even defended Wright’s assertion that climate change is not a crisis, saying “Chris Wright’s claim that climate change is not a “crisis” is, while not the last word on the subject, much more scientifically defensible than the claims of his environmentalist critics.” Trembath later posted “Chris Wright: smart choice.” Thomas Hochman summed up his opinion of the appointment simply: “Wright pursuing an all-of-the-above approach to energy production… pret…

Chris Wright, Trump's Secretary of Energy has declared solar and wind energy to be "essentially useless." Guess who backed his confirmation? Prominent abundists like Alex Trembath from the Breakthrough Institute and Derek Kaufman, CEO of the Inclusive Abundance Institute

Who is Behind the Growing Abundance Movement? | Revolving Door Project Who is behind the fast-growing abundance movement? Who are the billionaires and media figures helping it gain popularity?

Read the report!

Nazi trash Richard Hanania is mocking my follower count as a means of downplaying the importance of my report on abundance funders and orgs. It makes sense that a guy who’s career as a “respectable thinker” is dependent on us forgetting he’s a Nazi would be one to defend orgs with a shady past

Exactly! But if you tell an anti-immigration voter that, they just say “nuh uh, they’re on welfare” you cannot convince them otherwise with policies like this

She is proposing a new tax because she’s convinced that will make people pro-immigrant. But if immigrants already pay more into Social Security than they get, and we have insane anti-immigration politics, why would doing more of this suddenly turn things around?

You cannot convince American voters of the reality on immigration. By saying we should do a new policy to prevent immigrants from collecting welfare you only reinforce the false idea that all these immigrants are collecting welfare and cheating the system. You push voters into the Republican Party

There people:
1. Want to elevate the electoral salience of an issue that benefits Trump (the debate about whether or not immigrants are a drain on the economy)
2. Are unaware of existing public charge rules in immigration

It’s moronic. A complete misread of the how American politics works!

Jerusalem Demsas of The Argument tweet that reads: “We should also explore other ideas like taxing immigrants more (higher tax bracket called "Save Social Security"?) and there should both be more awareness and more restrictions on the federal benefits immigrants can access to alleviate concerns from US born citizens.”

Trying to win over anti-immigrant voters with stuff like this is so dumb.

Immigrants already pay more into social security than they collect, but voters don’t believe it. Immigrants are already limited on federal benefits, voters don’t believe it. This isn’t going to change anything but help Trump!

I think there's a national housing crisis, but as far as I am aware, there's fairly little the federal government can do in regards to things like zoning reform, eliminating parking minimums, doing single stair reform etc that's the core set of YIMBY reforms. It's all state power, no?

But the thing is, they don't as it regards to most YIMBY policies, which are usually able to be accomplished on the municipal, county or state level! Republicans control the federal government, but there's no need to invite them into the fold to get zoning reform passed in Los Angeles!