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Palantir employees are starting to wonder if they're the bad guys

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Re: Palantir employees are starting to wonder if they're the bad guys

#321

Post by micromacrofoot »

elAhmo wrote: post #313
bastawhiz wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They are U.S. defense contractors at an U.S. defense company. We should stop using the word "defense". They're war contractors at a war company. The Department of Defense is the Department of War. They changed the name and then immediately started taking military action against other countries. We're in a war in Iran for reasons that nobody can quite articulate, but it certainly has nothing to do with "defending" t…

The name isn't changed.

the current administration is using the war name, it doesn't matter what it technically is because they are using it to plainly state their ambitions for it

Re: Palantir employees are starting to wonder if they're the bad guys

#323

Post by ImPostingOnHN »

ericmay wrote: post #281
nkingsy wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The movie "vice" covers this nicely. The only thing stopping US presidents from acting like kings is precedent.

This is simply not true and it's disappointing fear-mongering from Vice (or anyone else who publishes this stuff). The reason you know it's true is because Trump doesn't care about precedent, yet in court case after court case that he or his administration lose they follow the law, even if it is imperfect or later attempted to be argued under a different standing. The same thing that is true for Donald Trump now was…

> Nothing has meaningfully changed here

Legally? No. That's what OP said:

> The only thing stopping US presidents from acting like kings is precedent.

Now if we're talking reality, the realty is that new precedents were set (president acting like a king) which revealed that there are not effective legal checks on US presidents acting like kings (or else we would not have a president acting like a king).

Re: Palantir employees are starting to wonder if they're the bad guys

#324

Post by stasomatic »

Ritewut wrote: post #229
stasomatic wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m gonna pull a Rogan and mention how many other sentient beings are massacred while plowing a field. Rodents, insects, snakes, birds, etc. Is that a myth? What is the answer to feed everyone during these budget constrained times? It can’t be tofu, can it? There are just too many of us. In the meantime, the US is overrun by dear and boars, and I’ve been learning archery.

> What is the answer to feed everyone during these budget constrained times? It can’t be tofu, can it? There are just too many of us. You are very wrong here by orders of magnitudes. The US produces about 5 billion bushes of soybeans. 1 bushel is around 60 lbs. Having made tofu myself, depending on the type of tofu you make 1 lb of dry soybeans is anywhere from 1.5 to 2 lbs of tofu(remember we are adding water to the…

Thanks for the math. Obviously not everyone will go for Soyfu, but I'll attempt to integrate it into my diet. I've had it, it's an acquired taste, but what isn't really. I remember hating black caviar growing up in Ua.

Re: Palantir employees are starting to wonder if they're the bad guys

#325

Post by turtlesdown11 »

stackedinserter wrote: post #216
pphysch wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, we didn't want Iran to have nukes, so we rugpulled the JCPOA and murdered the guy who declared a fatwa against nukes. We wanted to save the Iranian people from the regime that murdered 100,000 peaceful protestors (don't ask for evidence) so we butchered 170 school girls and didn't apologize. We wanted to stabilize the region, so we greenlit Israel's rampage in Lebanon and directly induced Iran to close the Stra…

Yes, an aggressive regime that develops nuclear weapons (otherwise why all this enrichment?), stockpiles missiles and drones that, funds terrorists like hezbolla, hoothis and hamas, should be stopped. Yes, when you apply military force, civilians die. Nobody is happy about it, at least in US. Yes, Iran closed the strait, because Trump taco'ed again and can't use force against it. Yes, Israel bombs hezbolla, because w…

> Send them fresh water and electricity? They tried it with Gaza, didn't help.

yes, one cannot imagine why keeping millions of people in an open air concentration camp doesn't work out well

Re: Palantir employees are starting to wonder if they're the bad guys

#326

Post by collingreen »

ericmay wrote: post #273
stasomatic wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that’s true, that’s insane. Forgive me, I’m not a PolSci scholar. Nobody in the cabinet can speak up and overrule his whimsy? It always annoys me when the headlines are “Trump invaded this …” or “Trump slapped a tariff on…” while effectively it’s the US government that’s doing that, they are letting him to do as he pleases? Then the fault lies not with him. He’s not a king but surely seems to have absolute discret…

It's not really that insane. Don't overreact to Trump stuff - it leads you to make bad decisions and assumptions. This archaic and formal "I do declare war upon theee" is not flexible enough for the modern world and so we have found, perhaps an unhappy middle ground where the President can indeed take military action, for a limited period of time (60 days) without congressional authorization. The President is the civ…

If the constitution needs amending, amend it.

Just "doing war" and calling it something else because you find the "right" way inconvenient or impractical is ridiculous, immoral, and illegal.

If the government acts on behalf of and derives its authority from the will of the people then do it according to our shared governance. If not then the people claiming autocracy or oligarchy or techno-feudalism has supplanted our democracy are probably on to something.

Tl;dr - no shit following the law is less convenient than just doing whatever you want

Re: Palantir employees are starting to wonder if they're the bad guys

#328

Post by quickthrowman »

stasomatic wrote: post #230
krapp wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The president isn't empowered to declare war, but as Commander in Chief he is empowered to send the military anywhere he wants and start whatever "conflict" he wants, for whatever reason he wants, including no reason whatsoever. After which Congress can retroactively declare it a war if they so choose. But the US hasn't fought a declared war since WW2, because declarations of war don't really mean anything when the m…

If that’s true, that’s insane. Forgive me, I’m not a PolSci scholar. Nobody in the cabinet can speak up and overrule his whimsy? It always annoys me when the headlines are “Trump invaded this …” or “Trump slapped a tariff on…” while effectively it’s the US government that’s doing that, they are letting him to do as he pleases? Then the fault lies not with him. He’s not a king but surely seems to have absolute discret…

Why would you think it’s not that way? Virtually all of the power of the executive branch of the US Goverment is in the Office of the President. There are mechanisms in the Constitution to remove the sitting president, but it requires the other branches to act in the best interests of the nation instead of their own personal interests.

Look at the history of every single war we’ve been involved in since WWII, no declaration of war. Korean War, Vietnam War, Grenada, Panama, Desert Storm, Somalia, Balkans, GWOT, Libya, Syria, Venezuela, Iran.

I’m not a fan of the president, but Trump only started two of those. Korea was Truman, Vietnam was LBJ, Grenada was Reagan, Panama was HW Bush, Somalia and the Balkans was Clinton, GWOT was Bush, Libya and Syria were Obama, and the last two were Trump. That’s 7 total presidents, add in Bay of Pigs and JFK for 8 and the only two presidents who didn’t start a war are Nixon, who fucked up negotiations with the NVA that may have prolonged the war to win an election, and Jimmy Carter, who tried to rescue hostages in Iran with military assets.

Re: Palantir employees are starting to wonder if they're the bad guys

#329

Post by [deleted] »

tapland wrote: post #298
inetknght wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> for reasons that nobody can quite articulate I'll say them. The reasons are Trump, Vance, and Republicans.

Might want to go back and check on the Dems. It bad > it's the ones I don't vote for is easy to say.

[deleted]

Re: Palantir employees are starting to wonder if they're the bad guys

#330

Post by cptskippy »

louiereederson wrote: post #270
bastawhiz wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They are U.S. defense contractors at an U.S. defense company. We should stop using the word "defense". They're war contractors at a war company. The Department of Defense is the Department of War. They changed the name and then immediately started taking military action against other countries. We're in a war in Iran for reasons that nobody can quite articulate, but it certainly has nothing to do with "defending" t…

Are they war or defense products when they are used against your own citizens?

What if you're waging a war in the name of defense?
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