Free Republic

Billionaire Bernie Marcus, the co-founder of Home Depot, is a known philanthropist throughout the state of Georgia The 90-year-old has given major gifts totally more than $2 billion to various organizations and causes, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. He plans to use part of his fortune to help President Donald Trump get re-elected in 2020. When Marcus passes, 80 to 90 percent of his wealth will go to the Marcus Foundation. His foundation will then distribute the funds to worthy philanthropic causes. Specifically, he wants to help kids with autism and veterans suffering from brain injuries and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.“I want to...

I wrote five years ago about the growing threat of a wealth tax. Some friends at the time told me I was being paranoid. The crowd in Washington, they assured me, would never be foolish enough to impose such a levy, especially when other nations such as Sweden have repealed wealth taxes because of their harmful impact. But, to paraphrase H.L. Mencken, nobody ever went broke underestimating the foolishness of politicians. I already wrote this year about how folks on the left are demonizing wealth in hopes of creating a receptive environment for this extra layer of tax. And some...

When liberal donor George Soros and several other liberal billionaires called for a wealth tax, the media swooned. Soros, Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, heiress Abigail Disney and 15 others wrote an open letter calling on presidential candidates to adopt a wealth tax on the top 1/10 of 1 percent. Vanity Fair was thrilled on June 24, publishing a supportive, hyperbolic account of the “zillionaires’” letter declaring: “Conscience-Stricken Billionaires Beg 2020 Candidates: Take Our Money.” Nevermind criticism that a wealth tax is unconstitutional, the reaction from Vanity Fair, The New York Times and CNN stories avoided tough questions and criticism. Bloomberg...

The pro-mass immigration Koch brothers’ network of billionaire, donor-class organizations is readying to financially back Democrats, so long as they promise to support amnesty for illegal aliens and vote to advance free trade at all costs. In a memo to its staff, the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity (AFP) organization announced that the economic libertarian group is set to back any elected official in Washington, DC, — including Democrats — who support their agenda of amnesty for illegal aliens and endless free trade, and oppose the GOP voter-preferred economic nationalist agenda of less immigration and tariffs to protect American jobs. The...

IT'S simply not enough for billionaires to have everything they've ever wanted – they need eternity to enjoy it, too. At least a dozen of the world's richest men have ploughed millions into bizarre ways to live forever. Here are five of the weirdest. 1) Cure for ageing A number of billionaires are putting their cash to good use by trying to find a "cure" for ageing. They include Jeff Bezos, the world's richest man, who has pumped money into Unity, a California company that hopes to stop the ageing process. It's already raised over $116 million in funding and...

More evidence that Joe Scarborough has descended deep into the liberal fever swamp. Now he's calling on a leftist billionaire with a fixation on impeaching President Trump to shell out for a phalanx of lawyers to get Attorney General Bill Barr disbarred. Tom Steyer is the left-wing billionaire in question. He has poured tens of millions of dollars into TV ads demanding that President Trump be impeached. On today's Morning Joe, Scarborough called on Steyer to direct his efforts toward having Attorney General Bill Barr disbarred. Get the rest of the story and view the video here.

Billionaire investor Robert F. Smith's commitment to pay off the student loan debt for graduates of the historically black Morehouse College covers millions of dollars, the school said. "When you have to service debt, the choices about what you can go do in the world are constrained," Morehouse President David A. Thomas said Sunday. "(Smith's gift) gives them the liberty to follow their dreams, their passions." Thomas told CNN on Monday that the exact amount of student loan debt to be covered was still being calculated. Smith's gesture, which Thomas called "a liberation gift," will enable graduates to have more...

Billionaire entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, the founder of rocket company Blue Origin, will unveil plans on Thursday for missions to the moon tailored to the U.S. government’s renewed push to establish a lunar outpost in just five years, people familiar with the matter said. Bezos, the world’s richest man and also chief executive and founder of Amazon.com, is scheduled to host a rare media event at 4 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT) in Washington to provide “an update on our progress and share our vision of going to space to benefit Earth,” Blue Origin said in an advisory. Blue Origin spokeswoman Caitlin...

Let the games begin! House Intelligence chair Adam Schiff (D-CA) told the Washington Post’s Robert Costa that he will make a criminal referral to the Department of Justice against Erik Prince for perjury. At issue is Prince’s testimony to his committee that a meeting in the Seychelles with a Russian financier was unplanned, while Prince’s testimony to special-counsel investigators suggest it was planned: House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) said Tuesday that his panel would make a criminal referral to the Justice Department regarding potential false testimony by Erik Prince, the billionaire founder of the private military...

Several of France's wealthiest families are pledging millions to help rebuild Notre Dame Cathedral after Monday's devastating fire. So far, the totals from four major donors already exceed $500 million. Bernard Arnault, one of the world's richest men, is donating 200 million euros to fund the reconstruction of Notre Dame – that's about $226 million. Arnault and his family announced the donation via their company's Twitter account. Arnault is the head of LVMH, a massive company with 70 worldwide brands under its umbrella, including Louis Vuitton, Sephora and Marc Jacobs. With a net worth of more than $90 billion, Arnault...

The largest donors on the left will be given a 'private briefing on investigations' into President Donald Trump by House Jud. Committee chairman 'Jerrold Nadler' during a 'secretive' Texas gathering this week, according to documents obtained exclusively by the Washington Free Beacon. 'The Democracy Alliance', a group of millionaire and billionaire funders of the liberal movement,is holding its Spring Partner Retreat and Strategy Conference at the Four Seasons hotel in Austin, where security has been patrolling the meeting areas since Wednesday. As always at the group's secretive meetings, all programming is off the record and closed to members of the...

Patagonia's iconic "power vest" is a favorite for co-branded company swag, but the company has quietly enacted a new policy that shuts out oil, drilling, dam construction, etc. companies" as well as some "financial institutions" on the grounds that they are "environmentally damaging." Instead, the company is partnering with mission-oriented B-corps, and companies engaged in "outdoor sports that are relevant to the gear we design, regenerative organic farming, and environmental activism." Patagonia has become explicitly political in the years since the Trump election, backing an organization whose mission is to defend public lands with the fervor of the NRA. The...

Billionaire heiress Clare Bronfman fainted in court after being asked by the judge if she had secretly hired Michael Avenatti as her attorney. She was taken out of a federal courtroom on a stretcher and the hearing was rescheduled for today. The Seagrams heiress is on trial for offenses related to her involvement in the SEX-SLAVE CULT DOS. She is reportedly a leader of the controversial NXIVM sex cult. Bronfman was joined in court by lawyer Mark Geragos who sources say is the co-conspirator in Avenatti’s Nike extortion case. Although Avenatti has not submitted paperwork attesting to being an attorney...

Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg will not run for president in 2020, the billionaire announced Tuesday. Bloomberg flirted with a presidential run before as an independent. He registered as a Democrat last fall and spent recent months courting primary voters as a political centrist. The 77-year-old is expected to play an active role in the 2020 election from the outside. His team has been preparing a massive data-driven effort to help defeat President Donald Trump. “I know what it takes to run a winning campaign, and every day when I read the news, I grow more frustrated by the...

Liberal billionaire Tom Steyer is setting his sights on two of President Donald Trump’s fiercest defenders in Congress: Republican Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Mark Meadows of North Carolina. Steyer’s Need to Impeach PAC is launching a week-long TV ad campaign in districts currently held by the two GOP members of the House oversight committee — one week after Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, presented evidence to the committee of alleged criminal conduct committed by the president. The ads are the first from Need to Impeach aimed at specific Republican members on the issue and will cost...

MOSCOW—Those who do not know the character of former President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili may have been shocked at the scene in Kiev, Ukraine, on Tuesday. Passionate and charismatic by nature, Saakashvili always felt in his element leading crowds of supporters to quick and colorful victories. On Tuesday, Saakashvili, 49, climbed up the rooftop of his apartment building just off Maidan Nezalezhnosti, the famous square that was the epicenter of Ukraine’s revolution in the winter of 2013-2014. “Poroshenko is a thief!” shouted Saakashvili from the rooftop, denouncing his former ally, the billionaire president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko. “He is a...

Recently we reported that Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe was under investigation by the FBI and prosecutors from the Justice Department's integrity unit regarding donations to McAuliffe's campaign during his time as a board member of the Clinton Global Initiative. Specifically, investigators were scrutinizing a $120,000 donation McAuliffe received from Wang Wenliang, a Chinese businessman, who was also a donor to the Clinton foundation, pledging $2 million. The Daily Mail has obtained footage that shows the two men entering Hillary Clinton's residence off D.C.'s Embassy row as they attended a fundraiser on September 30, 2013.

Billionaire entrepreneur and philanthropist Richard Branson said Thursday that taxing the rich "makes sense," arguing the extremely affluent have a responsibility to tackle some of the biggest problems in the world, including wealth disparities. "People like myself are incredibly fortunate," the Virgin Group founder told CNBC's Morgan Brennan in an interview. "I suspect there should be higher taxes for the wealthy around the world and I don't think they would object to that." Branson — with a net worth of $4.1 billion, according to Forbes — is part of the growing circle of elite business leaders questioning wealth disparity in...

I am very excited for this new episode in our national drama, in which the world’s richest man publicly accuses allies of the president of extorting him with private photos of his genitalia if he doesn’t stop accusing them of politically driven hatchet jobs.For dramatic purposes, it can’t end any other way except with Bezos producing evidence that Trump himself put the Enquirer up to digging up dirt on him, as revenge for the Washington Post’s negative coverage of POTUS. And then we’ll have a fun national debate over whether it’s wrong for the president to use scandal sheets...

Abolish Billionaires A radical idea is gaining adherents on the left. It’s the perfect way to blunt tech-driven inequality. Farhad Manjoo By Farhad Manjoo Opinion Columnist Feb. 6, 2019 Last fall, Tom Scocca, editor of the essential blog Hmm Daily, wrote a tiny, searing post that has been rattling around my head ever since. “Some ideas about how to make the world better require careful, nuanced thinking about how best to balance competing interests,” he began. “Others don’t: Billionaires are bad. We should presumptively get rid of billionaires. All of them.” Mr. Scocca — a longtime writer at Gawker until...