The richest man owns X. The second and third richest men control Google. The fourth richest man owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. The fifth richest man owns The Washington Post. And now the sixth richest could soon take over both Paramount and Warner Bros. See the problem here?

Where did San Francisco’s environmental movement go? Environmentalism has been hollowed out by a new consensus of YIMBY and Abundance players that treat regulation itself as an unacceptable cost.

The abundance clique has an AI problem. Beyond being funded by Silicon Valley, the ecosystem features an array of tech libertarians, a smattering of technofascism, and no answers for our anti-AI moment. Read @dylangyauchl.bsky.social in @newrepublic.com! newrepublic.com/article/2064...

Reports that Mayor Daniel Lurie spent roughly $1M on consultants drew criticism, but the spending also reflects a political reality: after investing millions to win the 2024 race, maintaining and shaping his public image is part of the strategy.

A stretch of farmland between Rio Vista and Fairfield has become the testing ground for California Forever, a billionaire-backed plan to build a new city. Marketed as a walkable housing solution, critics argue it represents something far more political. 🧶

Oh look, just another “moderate” project, not a techno-fascist billionaire thing, nope

Garry Tan started a new “Radical Centrist” group and it’s hilarious. #politics #Tech #centrism

This astroturf org has been writing op-eds in the chronicle and making comments everywhere that absolutely undermine the current teacher strike. Real parents who aren’t backed by billionaires + obscene generational wealth understand labor struggles and solidarity.

San Francisco City Hall could take action to bring rents down. Instead, the Mayor and majority of the Board of Supervisors are trying to divert attention to deregulation efforts that they know won’t help. Our city urgently needs policies designed to bring rents down not prop up industry profits.

The killing of Alex Jeffrey Pretti by ICE in Minneapolis has fractured Silicon Valley. More than 500 tech workers and executives signed a petition demanding ICE be removed from U.S. cities, marking a rare, public rebuke of Trump from parts of tech.

Two Americans—Alex Jeffrey Pretti and Renee Nicole Good—were killed by ICE agents during protests in Minneapolis this month. Both were exercising First Amendment rights amid nationwide demonstrations against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

A new study by four leading scholars obliterates the Abundance/YIMBY narrative. The study entitled “Inequality, Not Regulation, Drives America's Housing Affordability Crisis” finds that “For cost-burdened households, trickle-down benefits from deregulation will be insufficient and too slow.”

The bloc of tech fascist VCs are funding a major weapons company / Anduril clone in Nigeria called Terra Industries. The CDC, led by Jim O'Neill of PayPal Mafia lineage, is funding a vaccine study on infants in Guinea-Bissau, where colonies are also planned or underway.

Mayor Daniel Lurie’s first State of the City briefly pivoted from crime rhetoric to affordability, echoing national calls to help working families. But the message was undercut by the billionaire donors, real estate interests, and business lobbyists seated behind him.

URGENT: The Manhattan Institute was the first “think tank” to actively attack Oakland/SF using anti-Blackness and tech fascist support to recall Black school board members, Chesa Boudin and the first Black woman DA of Alameda county. They’re coming for CA and independent media needs your support!

It’s 2026 and people at well-resourced organizations on the Left continue to underestimate the value of messaging. Jeremy Mack of phoenixprojectnow.com on the new podcast ep.

The Heritage Foundation and Manhattan Institute were among the rightwing forces pushing the narrative that leftwing politics created a “doom loop” in San Francisco. (w/ Jeremy Mack of phoenixprojectnow.com on the new podcast ep.)

San Francisco’s 548-page City Charter—the city’s constitution—is set for review at the request of Mayor Daniel Lurie. A 31-member working group will propose changes, which supervisors may place before voters in November 2026.

Reporting on Greenland takeover attempt by the Network State and involvement of VC-backed company Kobold Metals, discussed on vcinfodocs: www.forbes.com/sites/martin... www.vcinfodocs.com/what-is-the-...

@jacobsilverman.com’s Gilded Rage tracks Silicon Valley’s sharp rightward turn—from liberal hub to Trump-aligned power center. Tech elites like Elon Musk now openly reject regulation, democracy, and the state they say “held them back.”

Meet your SF Unitary Executive Consent Manufactory. Only one representative of labor. Four spots for right wing pressure groups and four for representatives of rich people (philanthropy). This is a setup missionlocal.org/2026/01/sf-c...

2025 reshaped SF politics: billionaire heir Daniel Lurie became mayor, the Board tilted conservative, and Supervisor Joel Engardio was recalled after backing wealthy donors over Sunset residents. A warning sign for the new “moderate” power bloc.

The Marina isn’t progressive SF’s darling—often seen as affluent & conservative—but author @lincolnmitchell.bsky.social feels nostalgia for its small businesses and youth. The proposed 800-unit Safeway project looks slick, yet would add wealth, not affordability.

From cameras and GPS to spending data and phones, Americans are already deeply surveilled. With political leaders aligned with startups promising to “eliminate all crime,” unrestricted mass surveillance has become a multi-billion dollar Silicon Valley-backed industry.

The influential progressive third party announced Thursday that it was putting out a recruitment call for candidates specifically opposed to data centers. www.wired.com/story/oppose...

A new proposal to rewrite San Francisco’s charter is raising alarms among democracy advocates. Critics say the SPUR-backed “Charter for Change” masks an agenda that strips away long-standing checks on executive power under the guise of efficiency.

Eugene joins the growing list of cities that are parting ways with ICE-collaborating Flock Safety at the same time that San Francisco is doubling down.

Amid rising authoritarianism, a grassroots movement is defending San Francisco while elites claim credit. As billionaires applauded Trump’s threat to deploy the military, everyday residents were already on the front lines resisting an escalating crisis.

Wait so there are Peter Thiel-backed landlocked seasteading libertarian cities that the current Honduras govt wants to get rid of that Roger Stone has been advocating for that JOH also supports? And Stone has also been advocating for JOH 's pardon? www.nytimes.com/2024/08/28/m...

SF Mayor Daniel Lurie’s fast-unraveling appointment of political newcomer Isabella “Beya” Alcaraz to the Board of Supervisors exposed major cracks in his promise of competence. Reports of tax improprieties and a poorly run pet store quickly engulfed his pick.

GrowSF is calling for a 10% signature threshold on the justification it will keep "half baked" initatives off the ballot. All that would do is ensure only well-heeled interests can run initatives, half baked or not. There are process reforms that will do more good than changing the threshold. 🧵

At a packed Richmond District event, congressional hopeful Saikat Chakrabarti drew a crowd with his AOC credentials and progressive pitch. But as San Francisco tilts right, questions are mounting about whether the Stripe co-founder matches the movement he invokes.

Patrick Wolff is running for California Insurance Commissioner as a political outsider. But his campaign is supported by some of the most influential right-leaning donors in California and beyond.🧵

Tech investor David Sacks, now Trump’s crypto/AI czar, lives in a Pacific Heights mansion built on a former public school site—an irony given his role in funding efforts to weaken San Francisco’s public schools.🪡

This is what we end up with when we elect an idiot billionaire who’s never had a real job as mayor.

Check it out! Our Doom Loop Report is available for free download on our website. www.phoenixprojectnow.com/doomloop-rep...

“Why would a prominent venture capitalist [Peter Thiel ally Marc Andreessen] bristle at a pope calling for basic ethics? Because Pope Leo XIV may be the one authority on earth that Big Tech cannot control.” 1/

When Salesforce’s Marc Benioff called for the National Guard in San Francisco, many were shocked. But it was no aberration. The city’s billionaire class has completed its evolution—from technocrats to theocrats of a new, corporate American order. 🪡

Police cameras track billions of license plates per month. Communities are pushing back. www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-ne...

1/ A 450-foot statue of Prometheus has been proposed for Alcatraz by crypto executive Ross Calvin, with funding support sought from President Trump. Critics say the monument, planned on sacred Lisjan Ohlone land, reflects tech-fueled nationalism and echoes authoritarian monument-building.

The Phoenix Project also runs a blog that has a lot of great pieces. Here’s their piece on MAGA Marc (Benioff)

Days before Salesforce’s flagship Dreamforce conference, CEO Marc Benioff ignited controversy by telling the New York Times he supports Donald Trump and wants the National Guard deployed to downtown San Francisco. The remarks drew swift political and public backlash.

Seconding Dean. @phoenixprojnow.bsky.social does such essential work for San Francisco and the Bay Area (and frankly what happens here often exports elsewhere, like say, oh, federally, because billionaires/technofascism)

If you want to keep up with what’s happening in the Bay Area and especially the Astroturf Network that now controls City Hall and the local Democratic Party, be sure to follow @phoenixprojnow.bsky.social

Billionaire politicking www.sfchronicle.com/us-world/art...

During San Francisco’s “doom loop” years (2022–2024), media and conservative voices painted the city as a crime-ridden wasteland. But for many residents—especially older progressives living their daily lives—that narrative didn’t match reality.

Mayor Daniel Lurie’s administration is facing mounting backlash over a $4M/year contract awarded to OpenGov, Inc. to overhaul San Francisco’s permitting system — a deal City Hall insiders are calling politically fraught. 🧵 sfstandard.com/2025/10/15/s...

Under billionaire rule, the city’s so-called abundance means more for the rich—and less for everyone else. www.currentaffairs.org/news/democra...

How it started…

Hated by most everyone, the abundance bros are now trying to buy Suisun City, CA. According to the CEO of California Forever, the city is on its "way to becoming California’s best example of the ‘abundance agenda."