The author was paid by Bay Rising Ballot Action Committee Sponsored By Center For Empowered Politics (ID 1454577) in connection with this posting. Use GrowSF, GrowCA, & GrowUS voter guides so tech oligarchs aren’t silenced on Nov. 3. #techoligarchs #election2026 #growSF #growCA #chrislarsen

Scott Wiener leads the money race to succeed Nancy Pelosi, with $5.7M raised to-date, more than double Connie Chan's total. But all that cash hasn't bought a comfortable lead as polls show a close race. 🧵

Nate Fischer—co-founder of New Founding, which is backed by Peter Thiel ally Marc Andreessen—says that “a breakup of the country [of Brazil] may be the only path to scale where virtuous elites can achieve reform & competent governance. The US shld make clear that it wld…support such efforts.” 1/

Breaking!🚨 Why did Gagan Biyani (CEO of Empower Oakland) and Loren Taylor (co-founder of Empower Oakland) host a closed-door gathering in Oakland with Palantir’s CTO Ali Jain to discuss “business x politics” including the “AI boom”and “data centers” in the lead up to this upcoming election?

I spent years documenting my argument that the broligarchs and their offshore financial projects were an effort to re-establish colonialism, then this Thiel associate just comes out and says it.

Jenny Cohn@jennycohn.bsky.social · 5d ago

Will Chamberlain of the Thiel-backed Edmund Burke Foundation (which organizes NatCon) says that “The Brazilian regime should look carefully at what has happened to Venezuela and Cuba, and remember that this hemisphere belongs to the United States of America.” 1/

Throwback to 2021, when one mom pissed off every fascist in the city with this one neat trick and not one lie was detected. @brandee4schools.bsky.social

New Marc Andreessen just dropped "Let Chaos Reign, and Then Rein In Chaos" a16z.com/let-chaos-re...

Crypto billionaire Chris Larsen gave $500,000 to a PAC backing Theo Ellington, a candidate for SF Supervisor in District 10. The PAC route sidesteps the city's $500 individual donation limit. It's reportedly the largest donation ever in an SF supervisor race. 🧵

BREAKING🚨 The Washington Post has leaked a private list of donors to Trump’s ballroom. On the list is SF crypto billionaire and political megadonor Chris Larsen’s company Ripple Labs with $5m, bringing Larsen’s total Trump donations to $9.9m. www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...

Secret documents reveal donors behind $330 million for Trump’s ballroom

The records offer a panoramic view of a fundraising campaign that is extraordinary for its size and opacity.

washingtonpost.com

Big money is flooding from Astroturf groups into San Francisco’s School Board race. Political pressure groups like GrowSF and Neighbors for a Better San Francisco have pledged six and seven figures to back candidates Phil Kim, Autumn Brown Garibay, and Tim Tung. 🧵

Meet the candidates shaping the future of our public schools! Join @ppssf.bsky.social and @phoenixprojnow.bsky.social for our nonpartisan SFUSD Board of Education Candidate Virtual Forum. 🗓 Wed, Oct 28 | 6:00–7:30 PM PDT 🔗 RSVP: bit.ly/PPSBoardCand... #SFUSDBoard #SFPublicSchools #EducationMatters

Curtis Yarvin praising Hitler, Peter Thiel ranting nonstop about the Antichrist…and no one asks JD Vance about his deranged gurus? I’m old enough to remember when we had to talk about Obama’s pastor for a year or so. www.rawstory.com/jd-vance-cur...

JD Vance catches heat after his favorite pseudointellectual praises Hitler again

A right-wing influencer praised by Vice President JD Vance got called out for praising Adolf Hitler – and it's not the first time.The vice president has openly acknowledged neo-reactionary political t...

rawstory.com

After losing the 2025 Oakland mayor's race, the Oakland’s Astroturf Network is shifting focus to the school board, where it sees a better shot at winning. Empower Oakland, seeded by Chris Larsen and Jesse Pollak, gave $45,423 to five school board candidates this November. 🧵

“Democracy has been hailed as, like, the holy grail for the last couple hundred years, but democracies are inefficient,” said the crypto billionaire. “If you get a benevolent dictator, it’s actually extremely efficient." Hmm, where have I heard this before? www.nytimes.com/2026/10/01/b...

Inside a Billionaire’s Paradise With Crypto’s Most Powerful Ex-Convict (Gift Article)

Changpeng Zhao, jailed in the United States for a financial crime and pardoned by President Trump, is now living a gilded life in the United Arab Emirates.

nytimes.com

Glossy mailers from Mayor Lurie's "Clean Up City Hall" campaign are hitting SF mailboxes, urging Yes on Props D, E and F. They talk about corruption and red tape. Not one word explains how the measures would fix either. 🧵

Tonight, 300+ people will gather at Club Fugazi to hear from journalist @gilduran.com, whose bestselling book “The Nerd Reich” has everyone talking about Silicon Valley’s rightward lurch — and what might happen next. We chatted with Gil about the book, his readers’ top FAQ, and his next project.

The rise (and rise) of the nerd reich

‘The Nerd Reich’ author Gil Durán connected the dots from Silicon Valley to the White House to the possible end of the world. He may take on Gavin Newsom next

sf.gazetteer.co

We are crying out for an overhaul of our entire financial system. There are few ways to make that easier than by taking the Silicon Valley oligarch class down a peg or three. prospect.org?p=145569

Finally, an article about Pax Silica: “Tech Bros and the Trump Administration Are Building an AI Empire—In the Philippines *** Pax Silica aims to lock up rare earths, and hand Silicon Valley the keys.” By @kierabutler.bsky.social 9/25/26 … 1/ www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Tech Bros and the Trump administration are building an AI empire—in the Philippines

Pax Silica aims to lock up rare earths, and hand Silicon Valley the keys.

motherjones.com

Oh look, folks, the billionaire-funded Network State project of Praxis gets another big story in the New York Times. Not sure how seriously to take this vaporware (story misses key details), but they sure do know how to get into the NYT. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/22/w...

These Tech Utopians Want to Build a City for the Post-A.I. World (Gift Article)

After a sprawling world tour, Praxis, a New York-based, crypto-backed “digital nation,” has signed a deal to build a physical city in Uruguay.

nytimes.com

Crypto billionaire Chris Larsen gave $500K to SF supervisor candidate Theo Ellington via a PAC he set up, the largest donation ever in a SF supervisorial race. Ellington now says the PAC "doesn't speak for" his campaign. 🧵

San Francisco’s 27 Democratic clubs have historically been scrappy, dues-funded neighborhood groups. Now many have increasingly become front groups for a billionaire-backed "Astroturf Network" pushing SF politics rightward. 🧵

Two big-city mayors, two very different playbooks. Both NYC’s Zohran Mamdani and SF’s Daniel Lurie have high approval rates, and came in as political outsiders heavily relying on social media. But that’s where the similarities end.🧵

Search “Sad Francisco” on all podcast apps. Episode title: Daniel Lurie’s Web with Jeremy Mack of @phoenixprojnow.bsky.social #podcast #oligarchs

Our latest piece traces Garry Tan's rise from Silicon Valley organizer to major political operator, part of what we refer to as an "Astroturf Network" of billionaire tech donors including William Oberndorf, Chris Larsen, and Michael Moritz. 🧵

San Francisco astroturf group Abundance Network and their allies including current Y Combinator President Garry Tan & former President Paul Graham spent $143k to get current Flock Safety employees Trevor Chandler & Lily Ho elected to the SF DCCC (1/3)

For this week’s article, San Francisco D8 Supervisor candidate @michaelnguyen4sf.bsky.social calls out his own party. He argues the SF Democratic Party (DCCC) should follow Dolly Parton's example of giving back to the community that built you, not cozying up to billionaire donors. 🧵

RIP San Francisco Democratic Party. The DCCC members installed by tech oligarchs just voted against affordable housing (Prop I) and against taxing billionaires (Prop 40). The local SF Dem party is now Blue-MAGA and it’s endorsements should be ignored by anyone who cares about our city.

“Unlike most contemporary accounts of Silicon Valley, ‘The Nerd Reich’ is not a biography, an inquest into a particular business, or a ‘true crime’ accounting; it is an urgent intellectual history of a seemingly inchoate political moment.” thebaffler.com/latest/reven...

Revenge of the Nerds | Ali Winston

In his new book, Gil Durán examines the origins and ambitions of Silicon Valley’s war on democracy.

thebaffler.com

Xavier Becerra has gone silent since winning the primary for California governor. But here he is with Peter Thiel protégé Garry Tan—Palantir’s employee #10. “Garry’s List” is an AI-generated right-wing news site. Garry is a top Network State figure & tweeted “die slow” at SF city leaders in 2024.

On a new 💾 @techwontsave.us 💾 @gilduran.com joins @parismarx.com to discuss the radical billionaire cabal hellbent on consolidation of corporate and political power, their visions for the future and the strategies they’re using to drive us there. www.techwontsave.us/episode/342_...

Tech Fascism Has Come for American Democracy w/ Gil Durán - Tech Won’t Save Us

techwontsave.us