Tag: billionaires

California Democrat Governor Candidate Tom Steyer Just Can’t Stop Focusing on Trans Athletes in Girls’ Sports 

Tom Steyer, the liberal billionaire Democrat who’s running for governor of California, seems to think that trans athletes in girls’ sports is the biggest issue facing the state.

He talked about this during a recent podcast appearance, and now he has released a video of himself talking with a trans athlete and making his support completely clear.

Steyer is obviously trying to signal his wokeness to the far left base of his party, but his relentless focus on this particular issue makes him look completely out of touch with Californians who care very deeply about more pressing matters for their state.

FOX News reports:

California Dem gov candidate Tom Steyer prompts mixed reactions for video with trans athlete AB Hernandez

California Democrat gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer posted a video with prominent transgender athlete AB Hernandez on social media on Friday, expressing support for the trans teen as Hernandez looks to win another set of state titles in girls’ track and field.

The video went viral across social media, with a mix of praise and criticism across the political spectrum…

Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton condemned Steyer for supporting trans athletes in girls’ sports in an interview with Fox News Digital on Friday.

“Tom Steyer has taken a wildly extreme position on this issue that is totally out of touch with most California families and young people,” Hilton told Fox News Digital before the rally,” Hilton said.

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Billionaire Tech Investor Peter Thiel Moves Family to Argentina, Citing Concerns Over America’s “Long-Term Direction”

Billionaire investor and tech founder Peter Thiel has quietly relocated his family to Argentina, a move that is fueling speculation about the future plans of one of Silicon Valley’s most influential and politically connected figures.

The move abroad is allegedly partly driven by concerns about the “long-term direction” of the United States, as well as Thiel’s ideological alignment with Milei’s anarcho-capitalist government.

The PayPal co-founder has purchased a sprawling mansion in Buenos Aires and enrolled his children in local schools, according to recent report from the New York Times. The development has attracted significant attention on both sides of the Atlantic.

While some social media users interpreted the move as an outright departure from the United States, the reality appears more nuanced. Thiel remains an American citizen, and the overwhelming majority of his wealth and business interests remain firmly anchored in the United States.

Even so, the decision has prompted fresh questions about why one of America’s most prominent technology investors is spending increasing amounts of time in Argentina.

The answer may lie in a combination of politics, economics, and ideology.

According to reports, Thiel has developed a close relationship with Argentine President Javier Milei, whose radical free-market reforms have earned admiration from libertarians and economic conservatives around the world.

Milei’s administration has aggressively challenged Argentina’s political establishment, slashed government spending, and pursued a sweeping deregulation agenda aimed at reviving the country’s struggling economy.

Those priorities align closely with views Thiel has expressed for years.

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Illinois Plans Tax Break for Billionaires and the Chicago Bears. Everyone Else Could End Up Paying More.

The Illinois Legislature is busy advancing a bill that’s one of the most egregious examples yet of the grift between professional sports teams and state and local governments. 

Under House Bill 910, projects designated as “megaprojects” would have their assessed value frozen at a base-year level, effectively shielding all new construction from property taxation for up to 45 years. Just two developments would qualify for the maximum duration under the current language: the proposed Chicago Bears stadium in Arlington Heights and the One Central mixed-use development near Soldier Field in Chicago.

Rank-and-file property owners in Illinois pay the highest property taxes in the nation, but middle-class taxpayers get no relief under the bill. Instead, it’s likely their taxes will go up even more. The language says “megaproject” developers (for projects that cost at least $100 million) would be able to negotiate a payment in lieu of taxes with local taxing bodies, with the duration of the tax break varying by the total cost of the development. For example, if a property tax analysis of the Arlington Heights stadium estimates it to be a $5 billion development on land currently valued at $100 million, this bill would reduce the developer’s annual tax liability from roughly $350 million to approximately $7 million.

What happens to the difference of $343 million in this example? Local governments can still count the full value of the megaproject when calculating how much they’re allowed to tax and borrow—they just can’t actually collect taxes on most of the megaproject. Given the record of local governments in Illinois, it’s a pretty good bet they’ll find that revenue elsewhere by raising taxes. The legislation, as it stands, does basically nothing to address this.

The bill passed the Illinois House in April. The bill passed 78–32, with 10 Republicans crossing party lines to support it. Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker is busy pressuring the state Senate to get it across the finish line before the end of May. Pritzker (and the rest of the Legislature) are feeling pressure to pass the bill due to the looming threat of the Bears moving to northwest Indiana. Hoosier lawmakers, especially Republicans, have a standing offer for the Bears to relocate just across the state line for over $1 billion in public subsidies. (At least Indiana is in better fiscal health than Illinois.)

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Billionaire Democrat Tom Steyer Does Campaign Stop in Rough Part of LA – Gets Violent Threats, Man Pulls Knife on Staffer

Billionaire Democrat Tom Steyer recently decided to make a campaign stop in the Leimert Park area of Los Angeles. Things did not go well.

Clearly angry residents surrounded his vehicle and some of them shouted threats. One man even allegedly pulled a knife on one of Steyer’s staffers.

Some people in the small mob were even demanding reparations.

This almost sounds funny but as you’ll see below it was actually a very tense situation.

The New York Post reports:

Protester pulls knife on Tom Steyer staffer at LA campaign event — as wild video shows angry activists confronting billionaire

A protester at a Los Angeles campaign event hosted by California gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer pulled a knife on his staff — as angry agitators blocked his SUV while shouting down the progressive billionaire.

Steyer had been attending a gathering last Saturday at ORA Cafe in Leimert Park, during which he told a crowd of black voters that they are owed a “gigantic debt” and that the black community is “the moral leader of the United States,” journalist Maeve Reston reported.

The event took a turn when a group of protesters arrived and things turned ugly.

“Tom attended an event in Leimert Park last Saturday to meet voters,” a Steyer spokesperson told The California Post.

“After the event was over, staff escorted him to a vehicle in the alleyway because protesters were present, including one individual who had pulled a knife on campaign staff. The campaign did not contact CHP or request a security escort.”

Video of a confrontation between agitators and Steyer’s team in the alley showed several individuals scuffling as protesters screamed at the billionaire as he apparently took shelter in his SUV.

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Ukraine Regained Territory After Cutting Russia’s Black Market Starlink Terminals

According to a newly declassified U.S. defense intelligence assessment first reported by Bloomberg, Moscow’s frontline command-and-control structures suffered a catastrophic blackout earlier this year due largely to coordinated crackdown that disabled thousands of black market Russian Starlink terminals.

The Pentagon document highlights just how deeply Russian forces had come to rely on Elon Musk’s commercial satellite terminals to patch over their own spotty military communication systems. For months, Russian units bypassed international sanctions via shadow supply networks to source the hardware.

The Friday Bloomberg report claims that a “Ukrainian offensive against Russia earlier this year retook about 400 square kilometers after thousands of portable Starlink internet terminals operated by Russian forces were deactivated,” citing analysis from the US Defense Intelligence Agency. 

The document, authored jointly by the DIA and US European Command, states that “Russian military capabilities in Ukraine were temporarily yet significantly degraded following Ukrainian officials’ efforts in February to deactivate thousands of Starlink terminals that were illicitly used by Russian forces to coordinate movements and unmanned aircraft strikes in areas where communications were unreliable or easily jammed.”

Ukrainian forces then made their first territorial gains since 2023, after years of steady Russian gains, with Russia military comms now said to be “temporarily yet significantly degraded” due to the loss of the terminals.

The report further describes that Kiev forces working in tandem with SpaceX were able to deploy sweeping geographic restrictions that target-locked and deactivated unauthorized terminals operating inside the combat zone. This resulted in “instant” results.

What also didn’t help is the Kremlin’s own tightening restrictions on the use of Telegram by Russian forces, and so also the recent lack of this favored encrypted messaging platform among military units left frontline commanders totally isolated.

While US intelligence noted that Russia still maintains an overall structural advantage in raw combat functions, and of course manpower and firepower remains on Moscow’s side, the incident demonstrates that communications are still a vital backbone to any modern warfare and command system.

SpaceX has long sought to officially bar Russian consumers from using Starlink, due to long-running sanctions, and to prevent military use against Ukraine.

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Bezos Torches AOC, Says Billionaires “Earn Every Penny”

Jeff Bezos sat down for a wide-ranging interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box this morning at a Blue Origin facility in Merritt Island, Florida – where he rattled off lots of thoughts, including how billionaires are made, slammed AOC, and opined on the relative impact of for-profit innovation versus charity, taxes, and bureaucratic inefficiency. 

On Wealth Creation and “Unearned” Billionaires

Bezos directly responded to criticism from figures like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), who has argued that accumulating $1 billion is inherently “unearned.” He rejected the notion with a straightforward analogy:

“Let me give you a simple example. Let’s say you start a burger joint, and you have 10 employees, and you make a little bit of money… Until you have – this is just one outlet. And by the way, these are the most delicious burgers in the world. People love your burgers, Andrew. And so then you open a second outlet… and now you’re making a little bit more money, and you have 20 employees. And you open a third outlet. By the time you’ve opened a thousand outlets, you are a billionaire… This is a real life story. It happens all the time. It’s In-N-Out Burger, it’s Raising Cane’s Chicken… The way you make a billion dollars, or a hundred million dollars, or 10 million dollars, or anything, is you create a service that people love. And if millions of people choose your service, you’re going to end up with a billion dollars… But your chicken has to be good.”

For-Profit Companies vs. Charitable Giving

Bezos argued that the societal impact of successful businesses far outweighs traditional philanthropy when done right:

“If I do my job right, the value to society and civilization from my for-profit companies will be much, much larger than the good that I do with my charitable giving.”

He pointed to customer testimonials, including letters from new mothers who relied on Amazon as an essential service—especially during the pandemic—and noted that innovations like fast delivery and broad access create broad-based value that philanthropy alone cannot match. Bezos added that he plans to give away the vast majority of his wealth during his lifetime.

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The Steyer Smear

Billionaire Tom Steyer used his money to attack a lone climate researcher.

Roger Pielke Jr.’s research on climate and disaster policy wins awards and is cited by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

“My views are entirely mainstream,” says Pielke. “My work is cited by all three working groups of the IPCC. There’s nothing contrarian.”

Both Steyer and Pielke agree that “greenhouse gases warm the climate,” but Pielke’s sin was saying, “it’s not the apocalypse.”

Because of that, “the Center for American Progress decided to make me a target,” he says.

The center is a lefty group that pushes climate hysteria, running articles claiming, “Climate change is fueling more deadly and destructive floods,” “Extreme weather is only intensifying,” etc.

Anyone who disagrees is labeled a “climate denier.”

Steyer, now running for governor of California, gave the center enough money to run hit piece after hit piece that describes Pielke’s work as “fantastical falsehoods,” and calls him a “disinformer” who “ignores the data on climate science.”

Pielke didn’t know who funded the smears until WikiLeaks revealed an email to Steyer from ThinkProgress’s editor: “Thanks for your support of this work … it’s fair to say, without Climate Progress, Pielke would still be writing on climate change.”

Think about that.

“Progressive” activists are proud to stop a researcher from writing about what he knows.

Pielke describes his persecution in my new video.

It began after Al Gore’s Oscar-winning movie in which Gore claimed that temperature increases create stronger storms.

Pielke had the nerve to disagree.

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Trump Praises Liberal Billionaire Mark Cuban at White House TrumpRX Event, Says Kamala Harris Endorsement Was “a Big Mistake”

Mark Cuban, the liberal former Dallas Mavericks owner and Shark Tank co-host, made an appearance alongside President Trump at the White House on Monday to announce an expansion of the President’s TrumpRX website. 

Cuban’s online pharmacy, Cost Plus Drugs, along with Amazon Pharmacy and GoodRx, are set to list over 600 generic drugs on TrumpRX at lower costs for consumers. Cuban said 559 of the drugs come from his company.

“I’ve been the biggest proponent of TrumpRX.com,” Cuban said in brief remarks at the event. “Republicans want cheaper drugs. Independents want cheaper drugs. Democrats want cheaper drugs. And together, I think we’re going to do something special.”

However, Cuban has never supported Trump, frequently attacking him and supporting Kamala Harris in 2024.

One America News Network’s Daniel Baldwin asked the President about Cuban’s history as a Never Trumper, and Trump squashed the beef.

“he’s got a good company, and he’s going to do a lot of business with this,” Trump said, describing Cuban as “very gracious.” He continued, “I think I have a lot of respect for Mark, frankly, and I always have.”

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Jury Sides Against Musk in OpenAI Lawsuit

A federal jury in Oakland, California, went against Elon Musk Monday in a case he brought against OpenAI, alleging the company’s leadership “stole a charity” when they converted it into a for-profit entity.

Through his lawsuit, Musk, who co-founded OpenAI in 2015, sought the removal of Sam Altman as CEO and company president Greg Brockman from their leadership roles, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Musk also wanted an “unwinding of the company’s recent conversion to a more traditional governance structure and damages worth more than $180 billion to be paid into an OpenAI foundation,” the news outlet added.

The jury found all of Musk’s claims fell outside the statute of limitations.

Fox Business reported that Musk left OpenAI in 2018 when he was unable to persuade the company’s leadership to merge with Tesla. OpenAI is the company behind ChatGPT.

“In his lawsuit, Musk accused OpenAI of violating its founding mission as a nonprofit to develop AI for the benefit of humanity when the startup created a for-profit entity in 2019,” Fox Business said.

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X Agrees to Review Illegal “Hate” Within 48 Hours Under UK Online Safety Act

X has agreed to process the vast majority of content flagged as illegal “hate” under the UK’s Online Safety Act within 48 hours, giving Ofcom, Britain’s speech regulator, a significant new enforcement win.

The platform committed to “review and assess UK suspected illegal terrorist and “hate” content reported through its dedicated UK illegal content reporting tool on average within 24 hours of it being reported, to be calculated as a mean” and to “review and assess at least 85% of UK suspected illegal terrorist and hate content reported through its dedicated UK illegal content reporting tool within a maximum of 48 hours.”

The deal is a notable reversal for a platform that, less than a year ago, publicly accused Ofcom of taking a “heavy-handed approach” and warned that the Online Safety Act was “seriously infringing” on free expression.

X’s August 2025 statement, titled “What Happens When Oversight Becomes Overreach,” called out regulators by name and argued that the law amounted to a “conscientious decision to increase censorship in the name of ‘online safety.’” That language is gone now. What’s left is a compliance agreement with specific performance targets and a 12-month reporting obligation.

The commitments go beyond speed of review. X also agreed to block access to accounts in the UK if they are reported for “posting UK illegal terrorist content” and deemed to be “operated by or on behalf of a terrorist organisation proscribed in the UK.”

The platform will share quarterly performance data with Ofcom so the regulator can audit compliance. And following complaints from organizations that couldn’t tell whether X had received or acted on their reports, X agreed to “engage with experts regarding reporting systems for illegal hate and terror content.”

Who those experts are tells you something about the direction of travel. Ofcom’s own press release names the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) as one of the organizations it worked with to “gather evidence about suspected illegal terrorist content and illegal hate speech online.”

The CCDH is a pro-censorship campaign group co-founded in 2018 by Imran Ahmed and Morgan McSweeney, who went on to become UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s chief of staff.

McSweeney stepped down from CCDH’s board two days after Starmer became Labour leader. The organization maintains close ties to the current government and has stated that its goal was to “kill Musk’s Twitter,” according to leaked internal documents reported by Matt Taibbi and Paul Thacker.

Ahmed himself was sanctioned by the US State Department in December 2025 over concerns that his organization had led “organized efforts to coerce American platforms to censor, demonetize, and suppress American viewpoints.” A federal court blocked his deportation with a temporary restraining order.

This is the organization Ofcom chose to help build the evidence base for pressuring X into compliance. Ahmed, for his part, welcomed the deal. Speaking to POLITICO, he said CCDH will be “watching closely to ensure this results in meaningful action, not just words.”

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