Cicero Inst Plntr
abundance
Cicero Institute (chaired by Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale)
2112 Rio Grande St.
Austin, Texas 78705
About Us
The Cicero Institute is a nonpartisan public policy organization, staffed by thinkers with deep experience in government, legislation and the law, technology, and entrepreneurship. We develop and fight for bold policies at the state level that restore liberty, accountability, and transparency in American governance.
Forward-Thinking Solutions for Public Policy
The Cicero Institute carries with it the spirit of the entrepreneurial, courageous visionaries who founded the United States.
By crafting and applying policies modeled on the most functional part of the America they created—the private sector—we can fix broken public systems that need urgent attention in the states. That will create prosperity, reinforce the value of competent government, and preserve the promise of American liberty for generations to come.
A Better Future Ahead
At the Cicero Institute, we know there is a better future ahead. To achieve it, we must:
- Demand transparency, accountability, and innovative problem-solving from our institutions
- Hold bureaucrats to a higher standard than others
- Protect the liberty of all Americans, now and in the future, to fulfill their potential in a free society.
Our policies are grounded in the principles of liberty, accountability, and entrepreneurial innovation. At a time when public institutions are failing Americans, these principles are essential.
pix does not look like psycho joe
Joe Lonsdale
Chairman of the Board
Blake Brickman
Director
headshot placeholder
Everett Cox
Director
Tyson Hendricksen
Tyson Hendricksen
Director
Clay Spence
Director
Aaron Webman
Aaron Webman
Director
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Peter Thiel's Plan To Replace Democracy (And Profit Off What Comes Next)
milton grandson 
lonsdale
gil duran: 9
In 1997, there was a book that came out called “The Sovereign Individual.”
3:03
It argued that in the 21st century, two technologies would result basically in the overthrow of democracy
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and the demise of nations like the United States.
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Cyber currency, which we would call crypto today.
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And the other one was advanced automation that would create a world without jobs,
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and that wealthy individuals who were savvy investors could profit from this coming doom
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and prepare for it by making the right investments.
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This book had a major impact on Peter Thiel.
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And of course, it influenced the people Thiel was paying.
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Joe Lansdale got to work.
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He started a nonprofit, California Common Sense , allegedly dedicated to transparency and government
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spending, so that voters could make a difference if they found things they were unhappy with.
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On the surface, that sounds great, but two founders of that nonprofit started a for-profit:
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OpenGOV.
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OpenGOV is a software service for government agencies to manage data.
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The idea of replacing democratic processes in the hands of all of us
GHIS MAXWELL!
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But the think tanks would herald a few successful versions of their privatization plan.
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Like Sandy Springs, Georgia, famously the first city in America
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to privatize nearly all government services.
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It was the darling of the libertarian press.
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Everything for-profit, nothing public.
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And a consulting firm making a little cash off the taxpayers at every juncture.
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Those extra taxes for corporate profit started adding up, though.
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Eventually, Sandy Springs unprivatized
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saving taxpayers millions of dollars a year.
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There were also nascent communities focused on Christian values
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that the network state media heralds.
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Battle Ground, Washington,
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where a data center billionaire is buying up all the property to own the town,
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the mayor is on his payroll,
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and Highland Rim, a series of developments in Appalachia
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run by the investment firm New Founding.
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And that's not even including the California Forever Project,
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a proposed tech city in Solano County
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funded by Marc Andreessen, Reid Hoffman, Sam Altman and other billionaires.
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But what if this was never really about these little mini governments?
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Here's Peter Thiel saying the quiet part out loud in 2010.
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[Thiel] Technology is this incredible alternative to politics.
...
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You could pass laws, know, Cicero's in 15 states, we're getting dozens of laws passed.
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And then we're going to teach people that and go to the national level.
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[Gil] Riling people up is definitely part of their game plan.
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That's what we saw in the San Francisco recalls.
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San Francisco had a spike in crime during the pandemic,
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but so did almost every big city in the United States.
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Only in San Francisco,
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which has extremely low crime rates compared to most cities in red states,
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did they create this massive panic using social media and doom influencers
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to convince everybody that everything was worse than it ever been.
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And as Lonsdale got into nonprofits and think tanks,
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Patri Friedman – remember him?
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Milton Friedman's grandson?
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Started his own VC firm with backing from Peter Thiel
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called Pronomos Capital, existing entirely for investing in privatized governments.
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In Honduras, Pronomos invested in the first government
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run entirely by a for-profit corporation: Prospera.
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[Gil] Prospera is this little enclave on the island of Roatan in Honduras
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That claims to be its own little charter city
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that was funded by American venture capitalists and has been touted
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as the flagship project of the network state movement.
...
lonsdale
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But the real flagship project is something bigger:
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the entire United States government.
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It shows in policy.
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Remember the whole thing about taking over Greenland?
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That idea emerged and was celebrated by the people we've been talking about.
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I think having a frontier is very healthy.
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I think part of America being great is that it's is growing and creating more wealth for everyone.
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If the people in Greenland want to be part of us, if we can use those resources
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better and make sure Russia and China don't get advantages in the Arctic.
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The Freedom City as a name didn't really gain momentum,
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but the idea is there, and the influence in the administration is clear.
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Joe Lansdale helped staff up the Trump administration
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and just recently accompanied administration officials to the Philippines
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to christen a new regulatory zone.
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Just last week, we signed a historic deal with the Philippines, 4000 acres
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right next to Subic Bay, where we're going to build a
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first-of-its-kind, AI-native industrial park.
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I was there for a day in the Philippines with everyone.
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They’re, they’re excited, what you guys are doing.
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That sounds a lot like a startup city....
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that this stuff could travel to the White House.
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[Gil] In September 2024, there was a conference at Fort Mason
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in San Francisco called Reboot 2024,
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and its website announced that we are now in a new reality.
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And that Silicon Valley was waking up and about to become this powerful force in politics.
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And the guest speaker was Kevin Roberts of the Heritage Foundation
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who was the guy who had shepherded Project 2025.
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So here you had tech VCs in San Francisco...
kishner
10:20
for maritime prosperity zones,
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districts on American soil with fewer regulations
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for corporations to build ships and reinvigorate the industrial base.
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Then there's the New American Industrial Alliance,
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a tech industry interest group pushing for unrestricted data center growth.
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They were listed as co-sponsors of the Blueprint for America,
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lobbying for prosperity zones on American soil.
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A plan to sell federal and public land to private companies
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to build low regulation, low tax havens for progress.
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Their co-sponsor on the Blueprint was the company behind Prospera in Honduras,
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whose lobbying disclosures show they spent hundreds of thousands of dollars
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pushing for prosperity zones.
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But they also spent big on begging the American government for handouts of your money.
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They've lobbied on refunding the US International Development Financial Corporation,
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a government organization run by Epstein associate Ben Black
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that uses tax dollars to invest in American companies abroad.
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That's privatized foreign aid.
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And they might finally get their way.
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Black went to Honduras and promised investment in real estate and technology there,
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including an investment in La Ceiba, which is slated to be absorbed by Prospera.
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But it's more than just government handouts.
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It's war crimes.
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So we did a master plan.
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And we've developed ways to redevelop Gaza.
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Gaza is President Trump's and saying has amazing potential.
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And this is for the people of Gaza.
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We've developed it into zones.
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[Gil] It was sort of insane to see it all come together in this way.
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there's always the idea of a new city that they're proposing.
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And it's not clear why we need these new cities.
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You know, Gaza should be rebuilt for for the Palestinians.
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But these guys see it as an opportunity to take the land.
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And so that shows you the degree to which this thinking is starting to imbue everything that they do.
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[Sean] Look at how the people in this fringe movement
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reacted to other invasions.
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In 2019, Mark Lutter, leader of a Peter Thiel funded new city think tank, said that
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overthrowing the Venezuelan government would be an opportunity for these projects.
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And when the invasion did happen, Lutter suggested America
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establish a Florida or Texas style government there.
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He cites America paying for a wholesale development plan after regime change.
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Which is exactly what we're doing in Iran today,
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to the tune of $300 billion.
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Palmer Luckey, Lonsdale and Thiel associate, and founder of AI defense contractor Anduril,
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pictured here in cosplay,
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suggested a privatized city on Guantanamo Bay in Cuba,
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which President Trump also threatened with invasion.
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Again, nobody wants this.
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They know that.
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That's why they hate populism.
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That's why they hate democratic representation
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despite all of this being couched in freedom.
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What they're asking for is to exit entirely from any government structure.
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But that's just not how it works,
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especially when most of these guys are government contractors, and are still wanting
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to have the benefits of our society without having the responsibilities of our society.
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These are people who don't like being told “no.”
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They're angry at the pushback against data centers, that we don't want AI to take over everything,
gil
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that no one supports annihilating a civilization to replace it with one they can profit from.
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People need to understand that the billionaires have become radicalized against democracy,
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and they're in the process of using everything they have to try to destroy it.
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And that's the battle of our moment.
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That's the battle of our time.
...
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It's not too late to push back.
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Public response to data centers works.
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Many of the governance as a service startups are starting their work
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in towns and states where you can still have a voice to stop them.
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The billionaire class wants to turn your home into their playland,
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completely change how everything is run to funnel more wealth to themselves,
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create chaos,
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and then when everything is all f*cked up,
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walk away with their winnings to their own private enclaves,
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all under the guise of fixing a broken government.
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A government that they broke.
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And yeah, sure, the government is broken,
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but it's not because of democracy or lack of corporate privatization.
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It's because of corporate power.
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We need more democracy and less corporate control.
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