Free Republic

FULL TITLE: Little Caesars creator and Detroit Red Wings and Tigers owner dies aged 87 after amassing a fortune worth $6BILLION Billionaire businessman Mike Ilitch, who founded the Little Caesars pizza empire before buying the Detroit Red Wings and the Detroit Tigers, and won praise for keeping the professional sports teams in the city as others relocated to new suburban stadiums, has died. He was 87. His family released a statement saying Ilitch died on Friday at a local hospital. They called him a visionary who set the tone for his company and his family. 'He made such a positive...

If there’s any doubt left that we live in divisive political times, know this: Some fans of Harry Potter are burning their copies of the books to protest author J.K. Rowling’s views of the U.S. president. And she’s fighting back on Twitter, insulting those very fans. That’s right, one of the most beloved series of books in modern history has now become a political prop. Is nothing safe? (TWEETS-AT-LINK) Rowling has been vocal about her feelings concerning President Trump for some time. She has mostly used Trump’s favorite platform, Twitter, to share her criticisms....

JK Rowling smacked down someone on Twitter who appeared angry at her statement about Mike Pence.The author replied to someone who said they were going to burn her books and films in response to her tweeting a Bible verse at the Vice President.They said: "Glad I caught this article on Yahoo. Now I will burn your books and movies too".And she replied: "Well, the fumes from the DVDs might be toxic and I've still got your money, so by all means borrow my lighter".

Saturday on Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends Weekend,” Milwaukee County, WI Sheriff David Clarke ripped the critics of those that oppose President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting refugees from certain countries from coming to the United States and in particular Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who he pointed out has his own wall at his home in Hawaii. “First of all, I’m tired of one-percenters like Mark Zuckerberg and others lecturing us about who we are,” Clarke said. “I know who I am and most Americans know who they are. We are a sovereign nation. If you’re going...

<p>Carlos Slim, who last month said a Donald Trump presidency could be good news for Mexico, called for a rare press conference Friday, just two days after Trump announced his plans to build a wall between the two countries.</p> <p>The focus of the press conference was not immediately clear, but a spokesman for Slim told Fortune that the billionaire will take reporters’ questions.</p>

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg may rescind lawsuits he filed against local Hawaiians in order to fulfill the development of his prospective 700-acre estate after receiving a lot of criticism, namely from locals. “Based on feedback from the local community, we are reconsidering the quiet title process and discussing how to move forward,” Zuckerberg said in a statement, according to BuzzFeed News. “We want to make sure we are following a process that protects the interests of property owners, respects the traditions of native Hawaiians, and preserves the environment.” Zuckerberg, who is reportedly the sixth richest person in the world, was...

Even as Democrats publicly and loudly decry corporatist political “dark money,” billionaire Democrats and other donors funnel hundreds of millions to radical and violent causes.   Barely a week had passed after Donald Trump’s historic upset in the November 8 presidential election, but some of the world’s richest individuals were already launching a counteroffensive. George Soros and his fellow deep-pocket funders of the Democratic Party and left-wing causes gathered with a lineup of party activists and luminaries from Hollywood, K Street, and Wall Street for a three-day “investment conference” (November 15-17) at the luxurious Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington, D.C....

A few days after Christmas, Mark Zuckerberg shared a series of photographs of his family at their $100m, 700-acre property in Kauai. The Facebook CEO and his wife “fell in love with the community and the cloudy green mountains”, he wrote, and decided to “plant roots and join the community ourselves”. Two days later, Zuckerberg’s lawyers filed lawsuits against hundreds of Hawaiians who may own an interest in small parcels within the boundaries of Zuckerberg’s estate. The “quiet title” suits, first reported by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, are used to clarify the often complicated history of land ownership in Hawaii and...

Yesterday’s liberal women’s events around the country were backed by more than 50 groups which in turn were supported by former Nazi and now current Democrat financier George Soros. The march was led by the following four co-chairs: Tamika D. Mallory, whose bio says she “has worked closely with the Obama Administration as an advocate for civil rights issues, equal rights for women, health care, gun violence, and police misconduct.” She also served on the transition committee of NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio. Carmen Perez, who served as the executive director of Belafonte’s Soros-financed The Gathering for Justice. Linda Sarsour,...

By my draft research, which I’m opening up for crowd-sourcing on GoogleDocs, Soros has funded, or has close relationships with, at least 56 of the march’s “partners,” including “key partners” Planned Parenthood, which opposes Trump’s anti-abortion policy, and the National Resource Defense Council, which opposes Trump’s environmental policies. The other Soros ties with “Women’s March” organizations include the partisan MoveOn.org (which was fiercely pro-Clinton), the National Action Network (which has a former executive director lauded by Obama senior advisor Valerie Jarrett as “a leader of tomorrow” as a march co-chair and another official as “the head of logistics”). Other Soros...

The billionaire Tom Steyer, an environmental activist, said he won't quantify how much he is willing to spend to combat Donald Trump's presidency. “If you ask me can I put a limit on how much I value the health, the safety, the employment and the civil liberties of Americans, there’s no limit to what I think that’s worth,” Steyer told Bloomberg in an interview. Steyer, a Democrat who spent at least $87 million on the 2016 presidential election, was the biggest individual political donor in the race. According to Bloomberg, Steyer routes most of his money through the NextGen Climate...

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) -- The gap between the super-rich and the poorest half of the global population is starker than previously thought, with just eight men, from Bill Gates to Michael Bloomberg, owning as much wealth as 3.6 billion people, according to an analysis by Oxfam released Monday. Presenting its findings on the dawn of the annual gathering of the global political and business elites in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, anti-poverty organization Oxfam says the gap between the very rich and poor is far greater than just a year ago. It's urging leaders to do more than pay...

Alexander Soros, the son of liberal billionaire George Soros who acts as the managing partner for Soros Brothers Investments, has quietly emerged as a major donor to Democratic campaigns and causes. Alexander has remained relatively unknown in the world of political giving thanks to his father garnering a bulk of the family’s attention. However, Alexander has stepped up his political contributions even as his father continued to pour tens of millions into the coffers of Democratic campaigns and political action committees. Alexander gave more than $4.5 million to Democratic campaign committees and political action committees in 2016, according to campaign...

he famously reclusive 34-year-old heiress to In-N-Out's fortune has offered rare insight into her personal life in a new video. Lynsi Snyder, the billionaire president of the California-based burger chain and granddaughter of its founders, discusses her four marriages, the death of her father, and her past drug use in the 10-minute video, which was posted Wednesday to the website IAmSecond.com. She said her father, Guy Snyder, battled drug addiction and was in and out of rehab facilities from the time she was five years old. He later had an affair, and her parents divorced when she was 12. "It...

Billionaire hedge-fund manager George Soros lost nearly $1 billion as a result of the stock-market rally spurred by Donald Trump’s surprise presidential election. But Stanley Druckenmiller, Mr. Soros’s former deputy who helped Mr. Soros score $1 billion of profits betting against the British pound in 1992, anticipated the market’s recent climb and racked up sizable gains, according to people close to the matter. The divergent bets of the two traders are a stark reminder of the challenges even acclaimed investors have faced following Mr. Trump’s unexpected victory. Many experts had predicted a tumble for stocks in the wake of the...

It is tough watching the candidate that you backed lose an election. But when you lose a billion bucks on the market rally that followed, it becomes even harder, even if you still have $29 billion left.  Still, this could rank as the biggest losing election bet in history.  Is there a bit of karma in this? Gregory Zuckerman and Juliet Chung report for the Wall Street Journal that George Soros, aka Dr. Evil, lost twice in the election of Donald Trump to the presidency: Billionaire hedge-fund manager George Soros lost nearly $1 billion as a result of the stock-market rally...

#CalExit just received a big boost from an unlikely source: Peter Thiel, billionaire tech buddy of President-elect Trump. In a “Confirm or Deny” interview with the New York Times’ Maureen Dowd, the 49 year-old Thiel confirmed that he believed California should secede. Maureen Dowd: California should secede. Peter Thiel: Confirm. I’d be fine with that. I think it would be good for California, good for the rest of the country. It would help Mr. Trump’s re-election campaign. Apparently Thiel’s comment that “…it would help Mr. Trump’s re-election campaign” was made rather tongue-in-cheek. But it does raise an interesting question. With...

Women have been rapidly climbing the employment and wage ladders in recent decades. But only a small fraction have made it to the top rungs — and their progress may be slowing. New research shows that after making big strides in the 1980s and ’90s, the number of women breaking into the top 1 percent of earners has stalled. Women account for only 16 percent of the 1 percent, a number that has remained essentially flat over the past decade, according to a paper by three economists. And they account for only 11 percent of the top 0.1 percent of...

Kicking Money Out of Politics: Trump Boots Koch Brother from Golf Course Katie McHugh 2 Jan 20172 President-elect Donald Trump told a critical biographer and guest of billionaire David Koch to leave his West Palm Beach golf course on New Year’s Eve, forcing Koch to leave with him. Trump’s gesture was another slight against the pro-amnesty, pro-“free trade” billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, who opposed Trump during the Republican primary season and refused to help him during the general election. It also signals Trump will not necessarily play nice with the GOP political establishment and Beltway right. The Kochs...

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has clarified that he is not an atheist, ending years of speculation about his religious beliefs. The revelation came in a comment underneath a post Zuckerberg originally posted on Christmas Day, wishing his followers a merry Christmas and a happy Hanukkah. Someone asked: “But aren’t you atheist [sic]?” prompting Zuckerberg to say he was not and that he believes religion to be “very important”. Zuckerberg, who was raised Jewish, has cultivated an interest in Buddhism through his wife and met the Pope last summer, did not elaborate on his beliefs and did not explicitly say if...