Free Republic

Mark Zuckerberg has revealed deep-seated concerns that the tide is turning against globalisation.In an interview with the BBC, the Facebook founder said that fake news, polarised views and "filter bubbles" were damaging "common understanding".He said people had been left behind by global growth, sparking demands to "withdraw" from the "connected world".In a call to action, he said people must not "sit around and be upset", but act to build "social infrastructures"."When I started Facebook, the mission of connecting the world was not controversial," he told me."It was as if it was a default assumption that people had; every year the...

In 2013, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg launched an immigration reform lobbying group called FWD.us. The staff of FWD.us was initially led by Joe Green, a college friend of Zuckerberg and the inventor of a Facebook philanthropy-giving app, who had previously worked on John Kerry's Presidential campaign. In September 2014, Green's lack of success at achieving immigration reform led him to be replaced by Todd Schulte, who had previously served as chief of staff at Obama re-election Super PAC Priorities USA Action, which is led by Hillary Clinton 2008 campaign political director Guy Cecil and includes David Brock on its board...

In a wide-ranging interview with the New York Times’ Maureen Dowd on Wednesday, billionaire tech giant Peter Thiel defended his support of President-Elect Donald Trump and offered some characteristically esoteric opinions on everything from Meryl Streep to “Star Wars.” To a question noting that “President Obama had eight years without any ethical shadiness,” Thiel replied, “But there’s a point where no corruption can be a bad thing. It can mean that things are too boring.”

Last week, a source to Digital Music News leaked that the Rolling Stones had been invited to play the Presidential Inauguration. Now, it appears that the invitation came months ago, and it didn’t come from the Trump Administration. We’re now getting a better idea on just how cocky the Democratic Party was heading into Election Day. According to a connected source disclosing details with Digital Music News over the weekend, it now appears that the Rolling Stones were invited to play the Inauguration back in September. But the invitation looks like it came from the Democratic Party, Clinton campaign, or...

This year's Davos summit was attended by political leaders, business executives, intellectuals and celebrities. Notable politicians who attended included U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, British Prime Minister David Cameron, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. Prominent business leaders included Bill and Melinda Gates, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman. Celebrities included Kevin Spacey, Leonardo DiCaprio, Emma Watson and will.i.am.

By suggesting the richest 400 Americans have seen their effective tax rate drop by one-third and thus they should back a 30% minimum tax rate, Mr. Buffett is deflecting attention toward rates and away from itemized deduction and tax-avoidance regulations. It is interesting to see Warren Buffett using selective data to steer the Hillary Clinton tax plan away from tax reform that would truly unhinge the superwealthy .. By suggesting the richest 400 Americans have seen their effective tax rate drop by one-third and thus they should back a 30% minimum tax rate, Mr. Buffett is deflecting attention toward rates...

A New York City law firm says it has filed a class action lawsuit accusing the Syracuse-based Dinosaur Bar-B-Que chain of failing to pay its tipped workers fair wages. The suit claims Dinosaur failed to properly use the "tipped credit" provision in federal law, which requires employers to make up the difference between tips and pay to meet minimum wage standard....The suit also claims Dinosaur failed to properly pay overtime wages, "misappropriated" tips belonging to the tipped workers, wrongly required tipped workers to share tips with managers for large events and failed to properly pay workers for shifts exceeding 10...

The United States intelligence community funded, nurtured and incubated Google as part of a drive to dominate the world through control of information. Seed-funded by the NSA and CIA,Google was merely the first among a plethora of private sector start-ups co-opted by US intelligence to retain ‘information superiority.’ The origins of this ingenious strategy trace back to a secret Pentagon-sponsored group, that for the last two decades has functioned as a bridge between the US government and elites across the business, industry, finance, corporate, and media sectors. The group has allowed some of the most powerful special interests in corporate...

On Tuesday, three Republican Senators joined three Democrats to introduce legislation that would expand the number of guest-workers for the tech industry even though there is a surplus of American high-tech workers. The Immigration Innovation (“I-Squared”) bill, introduced by Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Chris Coons (D-DE), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), would also enable companies to hire an unlimited number of workers with advanced degrees from U.S. institutions in science, technology, engineering and math, which critics have said would turn some universities into diploma factories for foreign students. Currently, the first 20,000...

It's not every day that Planned Parenthood and Oregon Right to Life agree on anything, but both groups have come out against a new ballot measure that would limit the number of choices Oregon voters have in a general election – a measure backed by out-of-state billionaires and corporate interests.. If passed, Oregon Measure 90 would place all candidates for office – of any party – on one primary ballot, and only the top two vote-getters would face each other in the general election. This could result in two members of the same party facing one another. “Measure 90 will...

Facebook said Thursday that future research on its 1.3 billion users would be subjected to greater internal scrutiny from top managers, especially if they focused on “deeply personal topics” or specific groups of people. But no outside body will review Facebook’s research projects, and the company declined to disclose what guidelines it would use to decide whether research was appropriate. Nor did it indicate whether it will get consent from users for projects like its emotion manipulation study, which set off a global furor when it was disclosed this summer. In essence, Facebook’s message is the same as it has...

An American worth less than $1.55 billion could not land on this year's "The Forbes 400," the annual ranking for the richest people in America. The cut-off increase from last year's $1.3 billion disqualified 113 poor billionaires for this year's list. Bill Gates once again lorded over his fellow wealthy Americans for the 21st consecutive year with a healthy $81 billion, up $9 billion from 2013. He outpaced Warren Buffet ($67 billion), Larry Ellison ($50 billion) and the Koch brothers' Charles and David (each worth $42 billion) to round out the top five. Michael Bloomberg ($35 billion) managed to slide...

It was reported Monday that Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder and incredibly wealthy guy, and with his wife, Melinda, have given $1 million to Initiative 594 in Washington state. The ballot initiative, if passed by voters on November 4 (and it currently enjoys overwhelming support), will require universal background checks for all firearm purchases in the state.

... These days you can convert everything from real estate to private company stock to hedge fund shares into a charitable kitty. Moreover, depending on what you give, to what kind of charity and how you time your donation, you may get a much more valuable tax break than if you’d just given cash. Example: Billionaire Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is funding his $100 million commitment to Newark, N.J. schools by donating stock to a supporting organization (a rich man’s donor-advised fund) at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, a public charity. If he’d sold $100 million in Facebook shares and...

Bill Gates, the richest man in the world, revealed in a recent interview that his family goes to a Catholic church and that religious morality inspires a lot of his charity work. He also shared his personal thoughts on God and the biggest issues facing the world today. "The moral systems of religion, I think, are super important. We've raised our kids in a religious way; they've gone to the Catholic church that Melinda goes to and I participate in. I've been very lucky, and therefore I owe it to try and reduce the inequity in the world. And that's...

George Soros' ex girlfriend, Adriana Ferreyr, lost her temper at her former flame during Tuesday’s deposition, according to court papers. George Soros’ former girlfriend came out swinging at her billionaire ex during a private deposition for her multi-million dollar lawsuit against the octogenarian, newly filed court papers allege. Adriana Ferreyr, a South American soap actress, clocked Soros in the head, knocked the glasses off his California lawyer Martin Singer, cursed his other prominent lawyer William Zabel and even screamed at her own high powered attorney William Beslow, according to papers filed Friday by Singer.

Lease terms are still being negotiated, but these are some of the things expected to be a part of it: rehabilitating Hangars One, 2 and 3, fixing up a golf course, starting a public use and educational facility, and getting rid of NASA’s operation and maintenance cost of the area, among other things. In a press release, NASA did not give a date as to when these negotiations would conclude.

The Washington Post recently published a quixotic editorial maintaining that the left has no deep-pocketed financiers like the right does in the much written about and thoroughly maligned Koch brothers. In its editorial, the paper laments that Democrat groups have no one like the Kochs. For the Post, Reid Wilson wrote that for "Democratic professionals who actually run campaigns, the thing that frustrates them most about the Koch brothers network is that there’s no real equivalent on their side."

<p>George Soros is on board. So are a bunch of other billionaires, many of whom are also denizens of Wall Street.</p> <p>Why is it that so many of the 1% support so called “progressive” candidates? Why would they support those who seek to expand the footprint of government? Isn’t that against their interests?</p>

Ulysses S. Grant passed legislation making December 25th a national Holiday in the USA. The day is also celebrated all over the world. Whether you are a Christian or Jew or Arab, like the Three Wise Men, it is common to give gifts on this day, and send cards to your family friends and neighbors. When I was young, there was no controversy, no fear of a religion being shoved down someone's throat. It was plain and simply a day we were off from school, and we all knew why. The day simply commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, a...