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

wired.com

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

#371

Post by ericmay »

stasomatic wrote: post #343
ericmay wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

What's the recourse when they fall into a natural senile abyss like with the previous POTUS? Wait and see? I naively lived under an assumption there was a system of checks and balances that's not a coup d'état.

It's just up to those that we elected to make a decision or enact legislation. If they decide tat the president isn't senile enough, then that's just what they get to decide. Sometimes I think folks are expecting there to be an ever increasing system of accountability or authority to appeal to, but no it's just those people and they get to decide. If you don't like their decision, outside of the ballot box or whatever other means you have available to protest their decision, then you just have to live with what they say or decide. They are the authority. They decide to invoke the 25th Amendment or not. Not you.

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

#372

Post by ericmay »

starshadowx2 wrote: post #354
ericmay wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

They're talking about the movie Vice from 2018, not Vice the magazine.

Thanks for the correction. No change in my opinion or writing though.

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

#373

Post by decimalenough »

collingreen wrote: post #353
decimalenough wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US military is prosecuting the war just fine, US losses of materiel and personnel have been minimal (not zero, but close enough). China's takeaway from this is not going to be that the US military is incompetent. The fundamental problem is that the declared objectives of regime change and securing control of the Strait of Hormuz cannot be achieved through air power alone. And this is the fault of the president, n…

What? How many is the right number of personnel and materiel to lose for this war that isn't war and seems to have been either purchased for a few hundred million by political bribes or is just a distraction from the administrations involvement in a monstrous child sex ring? Also didn't we already win this war last year, last month, and last week? It is really easy to wave away our fellow dead citizens (and Iranians,…

I hate to interrupt a good rant, but we actually agree on this. To spell it out: the abject failure of the war is not a failure of the US military, it's a failure of its executive leadership, meaning Trump and his coterie of yes-men.

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

#374

Post by AnimalMuppet »

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…

What has meaningfully changed here is the rate at which Trump goes charging across lines that result in court cases.

As best as I remember, it has always been the case that executives make decisions that result in court cases. I've never seen it like this, though.

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

#375

Post by input_sh »

alpha_squared wrote: post #359
LadyCailin wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not a war, it’s a special military operation.

You're mixing up the propaganda phrases, that's Russia's stance in Ukraine. Trump's is this is "an excursion", totally different things.

He called it a military operation between the comment above and yours at the press conference going on right now.

He didn't call it a special one though.

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

#376

Post by spwa4 »

cogman10 wrote: post #355
spwa4 wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do realize that the Axis (Nazi Germany, Japan) were attacking everyone with the explicitly stated goal of conquering the world (and subjecting it to the holocaust, we might add), and US stopped them, conquered Europe, North Africa, half the Pacific, and nothing has been able to stop the US military since. And the US ... retreated. We might add, the Soviets, the other axis, did not retreat. China did not retreat.…

The US did not retreat. We fought multiple wars to maintain our power and influence. We toppled multiple regimes to maintain puppet governments. Very much the same as the USSR and China have done. Vietnam, Korea, Iran, Iraq, Cuba, Guatemala, Haiti, etc. US conquest was quiet similar to British conquest. They didn't make their conquered people citizens (that'd make things tricky for exploitation) so instead they make…

Let's compare with the Soviets and conclude the obvious: the US did retreat.

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

#377

Post by goodpoint »

notlenin wrote: post #232
malfist wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You say that like it's mandatory to kill sentient life to feed people. It isn't.

aren't plants also sentient? Isn't all life sentient? If not, where do you draw the line? "It has eyes and bilateral symmetry and an endoskeleton looks vaguely human-like so I can anthropomorphize it"? "Only members of the animal kingdom are conscious"?

No, plants, bacteria, mushrooms are obviously not sentient as they lack a brain.

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

#378

Post by ambicapter »

lazyasciiart wrote: post #286
UltraSane wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It was always a terroristic, offensive force." Even during WW2?

Yes. Netanyahu has pretended to justify destroying civilians in Gaza by saying the US did it first in Dresden.

Well if Bibi says it then it must be true!

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

#379

Post by MiiMe19 »

spwa4 wrote: post #376
cogman10 wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US did not retreat. We fought multiple wars to maintain our power and influence. We toppled multiple regimes to maintain puppet governments. Very much the same as the USSR and China have done. Vietnam, Korea, Iran, Iraq, Cuba, Guatemala, Haiti, etc. US conquest was quiet similar to British conquest. They didn't make their conquered people citizens (that'd make things tricky for exploitation) so instead they make…

Let's compare with the Soviets and conclude the obvious: the US did retreat.

Me looking for the soviet military bases rn

EDIT: I completely misunderstood the context here, nevermind.

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

#380

Post by Johnny555 »

jghn wrote: post #347
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 Department of Defense is the Department of War No, it is not, at least not technically. That would require an act of Congress, which hasn't happened. Despite what the idiots "in charge" seem to believe.

But those idiots "in charge" are what matters, right? Since they set the tone for the department, and lately they sure are acting more like a DoW than a DoD.
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