Free Republic

The man who set himself on fire outside Trump's hush money trial in New York has reportedly died from his injuries. Max Azzarello, a 37-year-old from St. Augustine, Florida, reportedly died Friday night hours after the display, said to be 'an 'extreme act of protest...[against] a totalitarian con, and our own government' on the conspiracy theorist's own Substack. The reported revelation was offered to The New York Post late Monday, hours after he doused himself in accelerant outside the courthouse before going up in flames. Left in critical condition, Azzarello has since succumbed to those wounds, sources told the paper,...

Palantir Technologies (PLTR.N) has cultivated a powerful mythos worthy of being named for a crystal ball from “The Lord of the Rings.” The data-analysis company co-founded by Peter Thiel and run by Alex Karp fetches a big premium to most of its peers. Financial realities, however, suggest the valuation is the stuff of science fiction. Demand is quickly rising for software using artificial intelligence that can make sense out of voluminous and disparate data to flag suspicious financial transactions or defend against military attacks. Yet Palantir’s top line is only expected to grow 16% this year, according to forecasts gathered...

wasn’t clear at first why Peter Thiel agreed to talk to me. He is, famously, no friend of the media. But Thiel—co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, avatar of techno-libertarianism, bogeyman of the left—consented to a series of long interviews at his home and office in Los Angeles. He was more open than I expected him to be, and he had a lot to say. But the impetus for these conversations? He wanted me to publish a promise he was going to make, so that he would not be tempted to go back on his word. And what was that thing...

Tech billionaire Peter Thiel, who previously supported former President Trump, said the Trump administration was “crazier” and “more dangerous” than he expected, in a recent interview. Thiel, the billionaire venture capitalist who co-founded PayPal, has been a vocal supporter and financial advocate for Trump. In an interview with The Atlantic published Thursday, Thiel said he is not giving money to the former president — or any other candidate — in the 2024 presidential campaign.

I have no idea whether this report is accurate, but given the nature of events and revelations in the past several years – this seems plausible, possibly likely.In the aftermath of the 2020 election outcome, several people on the more libertarian/conservative side of the political spectrum, were concerned about being targeted by an Obama third term. As the rather revelatory story is told today, that provided the motive for Peter Thiel to cozy up to the FBI and avoid being a target.Business Insider is reporting that Billionaire PayPal founder Peter Thiel became a “confidential human source” for the FBI in...

German-American far-right billionaire investor Peter Thiel was just revealed as an FBI informant as recently as 2021, according to a new report from Insider. Insider reported that alt-right activist Charles Johnson, also an FBI informant, initially introduced Thiel to Los Angeles-based FBI agent Johnathan Buma, who investigates political corruption and foreign influence campaigns. Following Johnson's introduction, the FBI allegedly added Thiel to its official database of "confidential human source" (CHS) informants, according to Insider. In order to be added to this database, multiple layers of approval are typically required, and only those able to provide "valuable information ... on a...

Long before the rest of us were talking about blue and red America, Tom Wolfe not only recognized the cultural divide; he bridged it. When he began his career in the 1960s, the liberal establishment was more dominant and even smugger than it is today. There were no pesky voices on cable television or the web to challenge the Eastern elites’ hold on the national media. Then along came Wolfe, a lone voice celebrating the hinterland’s culture, mercilessly skewering the pretensions and dogmas of New York’s intelligentsia—and somehow triumphing. How did he get away with it? The most entertaining analysis...

A vast trove of Jeffrey Epstein's private calendars and emails are being revealed today by DailyMail.com. The hundreds of pages in the files give an unprecedented insight into the late pedophile's extraordinary network of power and influence. Among the revelations is that Epstein appeared to know personal details about the marriage of Bill Gates and his ex-wife Melinda – while magician David Blaine had numerous dinners with the financier.

Woke Silicon Valley Bank donated over $73 million to Black Lives Matter-related social justice groups in the years before it collapsed, while failed Signature Bank gave $850,000, it has been revealed. A database by the conservative Claremont Institute shows that SVB donated around $73,450,000 to the movement and other social-justice related causes as it worked to increase its Environmental, Social and Governance rating. Meanwhile, New York-based Signature Bank donated a total of $850,000 over several years before it failed on Sunday. The money was used to fund Black Lives Matter demonstrations and contributed to the organization's political action committee focused...

While waiting on the February jobs report from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), I noticed that the big 4 banks (Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citi and Wells Fargo) are drowning in net realized losses as The Federal Reserve combats 1) too many years of loose monetary policy under former Fed Chair Janet Yellen and 2) too much spending under Pelosi, Schumer and … McConnell. At a micro level, we have Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) SVB Is racing to prevent a bank run as funds advise pulling cash. Panic is spreading across the financial world as concerns about...

Fears of a broad financial contagion spread on Friday after tech lender Silicon Valley Bank set off alarm bells over liquidity concerns — sparking share losses across the banking sector worth some $52 billion on Thursday. Peter Thiel’s venture capital firm Founders Firm advised clients to withdraw their deposits from Silicon Valley Bank — despite the fact the lender has been a mainstay for tech startups for decades, according to Bloomberg News. Bill Ackman, the billionaire hedge fund manager, called on the US government to step in and bail out Silicon Valley Bank. Michael Burry, the eccentric investor featured in...

Will 2022 turn out be a hinge year, as a moment when long-standing trends in geopolitics suddenly shifted in a different direction? This week, two important writers, one a long-established and prolific historian, the other a provocative presence on the internet, have argued persuasively that the answer is yes. But there's one other interesting point in common: Neither sees the United States as having played a decisive role in the sudden shift. Over the years, Niall Ferguson has written admiringly about the 19th-century Rothschilds and the 20th century’s Henry Kissinger and has highlighted the positive achievements of Britain’s empire and...

Recently, the Arizona Mirror revealed that the Republican Party in Arizona is urging Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell to financially support U.S. Senate candidate Blake Masters. Masters, who secured a coveted endorsement from President Trump, triumphed in the primaries based on that seal of approval.In the beginning, Masters was trailing his Democrat rival, incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly, by a significant margin of 12 points.But matters have recently swung in Masters's favor, and a recent Emerson College poll has Kelly leading Masters by just two percentage points. Since the margin of error is around two points, this could be regarded as...

Ohio conservatives! Ignore the lies being spread about my friend Josh Mandel, funded by billionaire Peter Thiel and spread by JD Vance! Vote for Josh Mandel, the only PROVEN conservative in the Ohio GOP Senate primary!https://t.co/m34oekMCNf— Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) May 1, 2022

Billionaire venture capitalist and Paypal founder Peter Thiel has decided to leave the board of Meta Platforms (the company formerly known as Facebook) after its annual shareholder meeting in May, according to an announcement from the company released just after markets closed on Monday afternoon.According to reports published by Bloomberg and the NYT, Thiel is leaving Meta’s board so he can focus on backing political candidates who support President Donald Trump’s agenda during November’s midterms, which Thiel sees as “crucial to changing the direction of the country.” Both reports cited anonymous sources familiar with Thiel’s thinking. He doesn’t want his...

This is the fourth in an ongoing series on the problematic rise of LGBT influence in conservative and GOP circles. The first three commentaries can be found here, here, and here.(LifeSiteNews) — All eyes are on Florida as it repeatedly proves to be the heart of conservative America, thanks to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ stalwart leadership.There’s another good reason, however, to keep a watchful eye on Florida: It’s also ground zero for the rise of the “gay conservative” movement, comprised of LGBT conservatives and their allies, seeking to exercise increased power within the party.At first glance they appear to easily belong,...

Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney’s primary challenger landed former President Donald Trump’s endorsement before she even officially launched her campaign. Now, she’s cashing big checks from Trump’s biggest donors — including tech billionaire Peter Thiel. Thiel has contributed the maximum-allowed, $5,800 check to Harriet Hageman, the Trump-endorsed attorney running against Cheney in next year’s Republican primary. The former president has made Cheney, an outspoken critic who voted for his impeachment in January, his top target in the 2022 election, and now big-money benefactors like Thiel are piling into the race.

PayPal founder Peter Thiel liked Mark Zuckerberg for the same reasons most people couldn’t stand him. Though the Facebook CEO is often criticized for being robotic and unfeeling, Thiel saw the younger man’s indifference as “a sign of intelligence,” writes Max Chafkin in his book, “The Contrarian” (Penguin Press), out now. The two formed a mutual respect based on their iconoclastic ways. “Zuckerberg, like Thiel, had stuck it in the eye of his politically correct peers when he’d hacked Harvard’s online directory to create FaceMash.” At college in the ’80s, Thiel had launched a conservative monthly called The Stanford Review,...

New Zealand is becoming the ideal spot for high-net-worth people to ride out a societal collapse. Billionaire Google co-founder Larry Page has been hiding out in private islands in Fiji to avoid COVID-19 and was recently granted New Zealand residency under a category for wealthy investors. Long before Page, Peter Thiel, the tech billionaire who co-founded PayPal and Palantir, retained residency on the island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean and bought a $13.5 million estate in 2015. According to CNBC, Thiel has filed plans to build a mansion buried into the hillside on the shores of Lake Wanaka. Architecture...

An executive at Peter Thiel’s venture capital fund is running for a US Senate seat with $10 million in backing from his boss. Blake Masters, the 34-year-old chief operating officer at investment firm Thiel Capital and a former protege of the billionaire at Stanford, announced Monday that he is running as a Republican to unseat Arizona Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly in 2022. In his campaign launch, Masters pledged to “completely end illegal immigration” and fight “indoctrination” in the school system. Masters has never held public office and faces a crowded GOP primary field that includes state Attorney General Mark Brnovich...