Free Republic

Podesta’s net worth has skyrocketed since his time in the Obama administration, financial disclosures show ... John Podesta, the powerful Democrat consultant who Joe Biden tapped to oversee a multibillion-dollar climate investment fund, discussed those investments with an environmental group that had him on the payroll just months before, according to a new financial disclosure. Galvanize Climate Solutions, a green energy investment firm founded by billionaire Tom Steyer, participated in an Oct. 31 meeting with Podesta and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to discuss how to best use the $369 billion in federal funds. Galvanize paid Podesta $84,000 in advisory fees...

On Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria” on Oct. 8, President Donald Trump described Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) as a “communist; she’s left of Bernie!” The president went on to cite Sen. Harris’s views, which are indeed even more extreme than Senators Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) or Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Mass.).But there’s much more compelling evidence to indicate that, yes, Kamala Harris may indeed be communist.Communist Parents Harris’s parents, her mother Shyamala Gopalan, an Indian cancer researcher, and Donald Harris, a Jamaican economist, were both hard-core leftists.In the early 1960s, the couple were active in the Berkeley-based Afro-American Association.According...

From:hms@sandlerfoundation.org To: ses@sandlerfoundation.org, james@sandlerfoundation.org Date: 2015-06-22 18:26 Subject: FW: PICO: Vatican Visit I thought you might find this of interest. From: Knaebel, Sergio Sent: Monday, June 22, 2015 12:58 PM To: Sandler, Herbert Subject: FW: PICO: Vatican Visit Herb, In case you did not get this from Steve. Sergio Knaebel Grant Director Sandler Foundation sknaebel@sandlerfoundation.org From: Scott Reed [mailto:sreed@piconetwork.org] Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2015 8:39 AM To: Knaebel, Sergio Subject: PICO: Vatican Visit Hi Sergio: I just sent a note to Steve with this summary of our visit to the Vatican. I look forward to talking soon. PICO sent a...

From:Amy.Dacey@seiu.org To: Andy.Stern@seiu.org, Anna.Burger@seiu.org, pbl@711sx.com, zschwartz@shangrila.us, douglas.york@soros.com, Michael.Vachon@soros.com more Date: 2007-09-22 00:24 Subject: Agenda and Logistical information for the September 27th NYC Meeting Thank you all for your patience as we have finalized the agenda and arrangements for the September 27th meeting in NYC. Please review the agenda and logistical information below.You will recieve a UPS overnight package on Tuesday morning with additional information to review prior to the meeting. We look forward to seeing you on Thursday. If you have any questions before then, please feel free to email me or contact me on my cell at 202-528-7492. Amy...

Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2004 1:09 p.m. EDT Billionaires Secretly Met in Aspen to Defeat Bush In the days following the Democratic National Convention in Boston this past August, several billionaire Democratic activists secretly met at the famed Aspen Institute in Colorado. The purpose of their clandestine meeting was "to use their fortunes to engineer the defeat of President George W. Bush," The New Yorker magazine reports in its most recent edition. Details of the meeting remain sketchy, but the magazine described the Aspen conference this way: "Five billionaires joined half a dozen liberal leaders in a lengthy conversation about the...

ProPublica on Monday reported that the same IRS division that targeted conservative groups for special scrutiny during the 2012 election cycle provided the investigative-reporting organization with confidential applications for tax-exempt status. That revelation contradicts previous statements from the agency and may represent a violation of federal guidelines. Lois G. Lerner, who heads the IRS sector that reviews tax-exemption applications, told a congressional oversight committee in April 2012 that IRS code prohibited the agency from providing information about groups that had not yet been approved. Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Jim Jordan...

NBC-owned television stations in cities across the nation just teamed up with a nonprofit “journalism” group funded by a billionaire husband and wife team who not only spent millions campaigning for President Obama but also topped donor lists to groups like ACORN and MoveOn.org. The nonprofit, ProPublica, will contribute to the news operations of all NBC owned-and-operated stations, including those in such cities as Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia, the network announced Monday. The NBC affiliates will get early access to investigative reports from ProPublica, which describes itself as an “independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public...

In covering the hearing of the nine bank chief executives on Capitol Hill, it didn’t take long for me to see that Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf was having a hard time of it, valiant effort though he did make to defend his bank’s lending practices. Because to look inside Wells Fargo, you will find the worst of the mortgage lenders housed in this bank, Wachovia, which Wells Fargo bought last fall for $15.4 bn, and housed within Wachovia is Golden West Financial, which Wachovia bought for a stupefying $25 bn, Golden West, the purveyor of some of the worst...

In front of a ballroom full of N.C. bankers in January 2006, Wachovia chief executive Ken Thompson warned of the dangers of “toxic” home loans. A problem with so-called option adjustable-rate mortgages, he told the group, was that homeowners can end up owing more at the end of the month than the beginning, which can be a “tough situation” for customers and lenders. “I have literally been amazed at the terms offered by some mortgage lenders, thankfully not at Wachovia and thankfully not so much in North Carolina,” he said. Four months later in May 2006, Thompson took a $24...

Wachovia, one of America's major banks, has seen its stock price plummet over the last few months and will be purchased either by Citibank for the proverbial song -- a few dollars a share for a stock that sold at more than $50 a share late last year -- or by Wells Fargo at a premium. What brought about the wreckage of Wachovia?