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Henry Burke

@henryburke.bsky.social
2K followers 1.2K following 515 posts

Senior Researcher @RevolvingDoorDC.bsky.social Opinions my own. Writing on Economic Hacks, Climate Finance, Crypto and corporate capture of the Executive Branch.

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Henry Burke @henryburke.bsky.social · 16h
A response to the WSJ Editorial Board's whining that Alito recused from Suncor v. Boulder: don't be mad at watchdog groups for wanting ethics rules enforced. Be mad at Alito for prioritizing his investments over his ability to impartially do his job
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Henry Burke @henryburke.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
While the average American family is being crushed by the weight of Trump's tariffs, Mike Johnson's staff used them as an excuse to plan a luxury European vacation on the taxpayer dime. Visits were to include: Champagne, a visit to the Ferrari factory in Bologna and visits to luxury brands in Milan
nbcnews.com
Congressional staff planned official trip with luxury stops in Italy and France weeks before election
The weeklong staff trip, including stops at a Ferrari factory and Champagne, was to be led by an aide to House Speaker Mike Johnson and was canceled after NBC News asked about the itinerary.
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Henry Burke @henryburke.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
The WSJ Editorial Board is upset that Samuel Alito has recused from an upcoming case regarding climate change due to his investments in oil companies. Like all my favorite conservative opinions, the final paragraph completely undermines the entire argument they've cobbled together. Hilarious
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Henry Burke @henryburke.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I encourage everyone to read this deeply moving and difficult piece on how data centers are the latest addition to the toxic miasma slowly poisoning the inhabitants of Louisiana's cancer alley. We don't need to allow this to take place
dissentmagazine.org
Death by Data Centers - Dissent Magazine
I’m an oncology nurse in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley. My patients and I breathe the same polluted air, and we can’t afford the toxic exposure from the gas-fired plants set to power the state’s proposed A...
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Henry Burke @henryburke.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Kyrsten Sinema, whose 2025 financial disclosure listed a total assets of between $30-100k (all in retirement accounts) and student debt of between $15-50k is claiming that her ex-boyfriend destroyed $123,000 worth of artwork. Must have been a lucrative couple of years since leaving office!
washingtonsun.com
Kyrsten Sinema’s Ex-Bodyguard Is Accused of a $200K Art-Destroying Rampage at Her Home
The incident is the latest fallout surrounding Sinema’s relationship with her ex-bodyguard, who was married while working on her security detail.
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Henry Burke @henryburke.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Peak Trump administration fraud story. The Biden admin kicked brokers engaging in fraud out of the Obamacare markets. Because Republicans love white collar crime, they invited the fraudsters back. Now the Trump admin is claiming the markets are rife with fraud (that they themselves created!)
New York Times headline that reads: "Trump Officials Eject 750,000 From Obamacare Markets, Claiming Fraud"Excerpt from said NY Times story reading "There is also evidence that some brokers illegally signed people up for coverage without their knowledge, though the number of such people is estimated to be substantially lower. During the Biden administration, health officials decertified around 200 brokers after learning they were engaged in such behavior. The Trump administration recertified those brokers last year."
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Henry Burke @henryburke.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
The Sean Duffy-led DOT has found their solution to high gas prices: unleashing dangerously sleep-deprived truckers onto the roads!
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Henry Burke @henryburke.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
The so-called "Department of Government Efficiency" killed the IRS free file program in 2025. Now, the DOGE kids are building a new AI-driven website to do the same thing as the program they killed. A really neat summation of "government efficiency" in the Trump administration
washingtonsun.com
Trump Aides Are Prepping an AI Takeover of Government Services
Former DOGE operatives are working on a website that could offer services like direct tax filing — similar to a Biden-era program the Trump administration killed.
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Henry Burke @henryburke.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Amazingly, the guy who founded this daycare-based Ponzi scheme has connections to abundance world, having served on the board of directors of Roots of Progress, an org funded by Patrick Collision and advised by Tyler Cowen. Roots of Progress claims 90% overlap with abundance
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Henry Burke @henryburke.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
An Ayn Rand acolyte was hired to run a school solely based on his affinity for libertarianism. Not satisfied with that, he grew it into a multi-national, private equity-fueled childcare Ponzi scheme, explicitly based on Uber's model. The result? Vast amounts of child neglect
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Henry Burke @henryburke.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
How does a Nazi get a second chance? Well, Nate's brother Thomas is an influential abundance/AI guy with the Foundation for American Innovation, the org which basically wrote all of the Trump admin's AI policy. Maybe that helps, after all, their beliefs don't seem to diverge much
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Henry Burke @henryburke.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
The publication that employs Maggie Haberman wrote this without a shred of irony
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Henry Burke @henryburke.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Yet another sign of our increasingly illiterate society. Republican attacks on bills being too long to read have gone from bills like the ACA (near 1,000 pages) down to a mere 32 pages
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Henry Burke @henryburke.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Interrupt the conversation to tell everyone you're getting married just so you can then explain to them that you're super frugal but the miracle of credit card points allowed you to book a honeymoon for free. Totally normal thing to do when having a conversation with people you just met.
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Henry Burke @henryburke.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Watch this clip from Sean Duffy's road trip reality show and you may ask "Why is a former Bravo reality show personality interrupting the conversation to talk about the benefits of credit card points?" It appears to be an promo for the show's sponsors, Chase Travel and credit card trade group EPC
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Henry Burke @henryburke.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
I'd like to clarify something on the Sean Duffy's reality show and the discussion he has about Harvard corrupting young conservative women like his daughter. The discussion is entirely hypothetical. It takes place when she's applying to Harvard. As far as we know from the show, she never gets in!
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Henry Burke @henryburke.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
I watched all six episodes of the Sean Duffy reality show so you don't have to. It's clear that after getting a negative reaction to the trailer, Duffy's team re-edited the show and left a bunch of footage on the cutting room floor. But that doesn't mean it's good. Thread:
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Revolving Door Project @revolvingdoordc.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Spoiler alert: the extra month and a half in edits did little to fix Sean Duffy's ethics disaster. In the show's six episode run, the Secretary of Transportation often appears to be more of a company spokesman than a government regulator. New from our @henryburke.bsky.social in @thenation.com
thenation.com
Road Trip to Nowhere
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy's reality show is an ungainly mix of corporate corruption and MAGA agitprop.
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Henry Burke @henryburke.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
A decent chance that Trump's CFTC Chair, a stooge of the prediction markets industry, will *order* Kalshi to continue operating in Washington State despite this order. They've already done that elsewhere
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The War on Cars @thewaroncars.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Nobody could see this coming... except for everybody. We had @henryburke.bsky.social from @prospect.org on back in May to talk about "Sean Duffy's Great American Road Grift" for a bonus episode. www.patreon.com/thewaroncars...
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Revolving Door Project @revolvingdoordc.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Insider trading has become the go-to form of corruption for the Trump admin. Even easier than collecting a bribe with more plausible deniability, everyone seems to have made a buck trading on non-public info. Now the president wants to sell an insider trading franchise to Wall Street:
revolvingdoorproject.substack.com
The Insider Trading Administration
Insider trading is no longer limited to Trump allies. A franchise of your own is now available – for a price
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Revolving Door Project @revolvingdoordc.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
"The groups argue that Gillibrand's son's involvement in the crypto industry leaves Democrats vulnerable to the very charge they are trying to level against President Trump."
axios.com
Scoop: Progressives scorch Gillibrand over crypto
The blistering — and deeply personal — attack from three groups complicates already delicate negotiations over the CLARITY Act.
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Henry Burke @henryburke.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Politico's parent company, Axel Springer, is awarding Peter Thiel with their "2026 Axel Springer Award." The announcement claims that Thiel has been "attacked and vilified" and that Palantir, the surveillance firm he co-founded "is crucial to the resilience of democracies"
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Henry Burke @henryburke.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour sees gambling on his app as the cure to Instagram addiction. Seems kind of like trying to treat a caffeine addiction by taking up cocaine but I guess I shouldn't be surprised when a coke dealer sees some merit in that idea
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Henry Burke @henryburke.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Stephen Miller lets it slip: "they all have a life they want after the Senate... corporate boards they want to be a part of" Withholding lucrative jobs is how Trump and the oligarchs keep their grip on power. This would be called corruption anywhere else Video credit @acyn.bsky.social on X
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Henry Burke @henryburke.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Centrists are so excited to punch left that they're missing that this is clearly a grift. It's run by a college sophomore whose only experience is seemingly driving his car a lot and sinecure at WelcomePAC, a job his dad (WelcomePAC's Director of Electoral Programs & Finance Chair) secured for him
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Henry Burke @henryburke.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Perfect example of how revolvers legitimize a scam industry: Kalshi's head of enforcement and CPM are touting Prelogar's work for the Kalshi as proof the Democratic Party supports prediction markets. Maybe it's time we rethink the appointment of people willing to sell out the party like this
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Henry Burke @henryburke.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
The Coalition for Prediction Markets has added a new revolver to their roster: Biden's Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar. She's not the only former SG on Kalshi's payroll. One-time defender of child slavery, Neal Katyal is also working to defend the industry from bipartisan attempts to rein it in
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Henry Burke @henryburke.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Yglesias has a bizarre piece today that is extremely credulous about tax abatements for data centers because they are *intended* to generate revenue. That's also the intention behind public subsidies of stadiums, but the intention doesn't matter. It doesn't work.
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Henry Burke @henryburke.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
Telling excerpt from Wired's fantastic reporting on Peter Thiel's secret society: the staff overruled their AI tool to label Tyler Cowen a VIP Cowen is neither famous or rich (the normal criteria for VIPs) but his libertarian ideas have tons of cachet in Silicon Valley and in the abundance movement
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Revolving Door Project @revolvingdoordc.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
In the late 2010s, nicotine use among teens spiked as companies like Juul targeted young people in advertising, hooking a new generation on their product. If you think this sounds similar to prediction markets, you aren't wrong. Juul's PR guy is even helping prediction markets run the same playbook
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Henry Burke @henryburke.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Want to know what an industry really thinks? Look at who they hire. Prediction markets are preparing for a political backlash by staffing up with powerful ex-congressmen and executives from the gambling industry and Juul. Who knows more about dodging backlash for an addictive product? My new piece:
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Henry Burke @henryburke.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Billionaire Mark Cuban appeared at centrism conference WelcomeFest yesterday offering advice on how Democrats to win back the center. His advice? Democrats need to ask businesses to make things more affordable, and they need to emulate Trump's approach of listening to the oligarchs
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Henry Burke @henryburke.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Sean McElwee, SBF's gambling buddy, is attempting a comeback, hosting a discussion at WelcomeFest's "Reducing polarization and governing well room" tomorrow
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Henry Burke @henryburke.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Underrated thing seemingly driving right wing psychosis in tech is that so many of the "founders" spent years committing innumerable workplace abuses at their small startups. When they grew enough to have HR and legal departments they heard "no" for the first time and flipped out
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Jose Pagliery @josepagliery.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
New from me @notus.com: The Trump admin gave Phil Alito, Sam Alito's son, a political appointee job as a Treasury Dept lawyer in 2025. The judge never disclosed it during the tariff case. Now the fight over the Treasury's J6 slush fund could reach the high court too. www.notus.org/us-news/samu...
notus.org
Samuel Alito’s Son Has Been Quietly Working for Trump’s Treasury Department
Philip Alito has been working as an attorney with the Treasury’s office of the general counsel for months even as the Supreme Court takes up cases involving the department.
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The War on Cars @thewaroncars.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
New Patreon BONUS: "Sean Duffy's Great American Road Grift." The Secretary of Transportation's new online series is a giant conflict of interest packaged as a reality TV show. @henryburke.bsky.social joins us to break it all down. Become a supporter to listen! www.patreon.com/posts/bonus-...
Rachel Campos-Duffy and Sean Duffy sitting in SUV with two kids int he back seat. Rachel wears a beige coat and Sean wears a blue puffy jacket.
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Henry Burke @henryburke.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Pro-moderation group WelcomePAC also appears to have embraced the autopsy that was so egregiously incomplete and incompetently-produced that the DNC tried to bury it.
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Henry Burke @henryburke.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
In a baffling choice, Third Way seems to believe the DNC autopsy — the document that is riddled with basic factual errors, misspellings and potentially AI-hallucinated claims— proves their worldview correct
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ryan cooper @ryanlcooper.com · 14/05/2026
none of these people actually want to be doing the job. they want to be celebrities
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Henry Burke @henryburke.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
What is Boeing getting in return for their $1 million donation to the Duffy family slush fund? The lifting of caps the FAA set on 737-MAX production to ensure corners weren't cut, and allowing Boeing to self-certify the safety of both their 787 and 737-MAX after years of being banned from doing so
prospect.org
Following the Money on Sean Duffy’s Road Trip - The American Prospect
Nearly a dozen companies that sponsored Duffy’s personal travel have significant business before his agency.
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Henry Burke @henryburke.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
The ex-girlfriend of Donald Trump Jr. (and ex-wife of Gavin Newsom) Kimberly Guilfoyle is doing critical diplomatic work in her position as US ambassador to Greece today, cutting the ribbon on a new McDonalds. And yet they still say the Trump admin. has no diplomatic accomplishments
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Henry Burke @henryburke.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
Here's just some of the DOT decisions that could have been biased by the donations made to Duffy's vacation: Ending cash compensation for flight delays Allowing Boeing to self-certify the safety of their jets Ending an investigation into the devaluing of airline rewards programs There's much more:
prospect.org
Following the Money on Sean Duffy’s Road Trip - The American Prospect
Nearly a dozen companies that sponsored Duffy’s personal travel have significant business before his agency.
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Henry Burke @henryburke.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
When I reached out to Sean Duffy's spokesperson he assured me that "no taxpayer dollars were spent on Secretary Duffy's family." That's technically true. But money is fungible, and federal funds collected by fees imposed on incoming tourists appear to have been spent on Duffy's family.
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Henry Burke @henryburke.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
I tried to compile all the possible conflicts of interest arising from Sean Duffy's road trip for @theamericanproject.bsky.social While I'm sure there's something I'm missing, I think this might be the most comprehensive piece on the vast corruption filling the coffers of his vacation slush fund
prospect.org
Following the Money on Sean Duffy’s Road Trip - The American Prospect
Nearly a dozen companies that sponsored Duffy’s personal travel have significant business before his agency.
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Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
Assume AI training for K-12 is a good idea. Schiff's bill, the LIFT AI Act, is a grant program for the National Science Foundation. The NSF has no director. The nominee is a Thiel acolyte with no science degrees. Trump just fired the entire Board that oversees NSF. No. Absolutely not.
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Henry Burke @henryburke.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Yesterday, Matt Yglesias attacked my org, The Revolving Door Project for supposedly not calling out the "Warren Wing mafia" (spooky) Early this month I wrote a piece for the Lever that called out this person by name, something he'd know if he read our work (he proudly proclaims he'd never do that)
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Henry Burke @henryburke.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
I'm just confused by the staff work on this, frankly. Imagine being the guy explaining to your boss, a US Congressman, that he is listed in the program after a bitcoin DJ with 54 monthly listeners on Spotify. Not 54k. 54 individuals
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Henry Burke @henryburke.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
This is not the main issue with the "Bitcoin Conference" (that would be the obvious corruption,) but it's frankly humiliating that we now live in a time where a US Senator is not only willing to speak at a conference with guys like this, but he accepts lower billing than them. It's degrading
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Henry Burke @henryburke.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
It's outrageous how all the top law enforcement officials in the country are going to Las Vegas to pledge their allegiance to the cryptocurrency industry. Democrats can and should make an issue out of this, but many will not, because they're cowed by crypto's campaign expenditures
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