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<p>I watched Palantir come up from "nothing"... they were (from my
limited perspective) just another "Beltway Bandit" like the ones I
had to sit opposite in meetings in DC where they would A) Work 120
hour weeks to build their business; B) Spend half that week
lobbying the decision makers overtly and covertly; C) lie through
their teeth about their capabilities, their competitor's
(including LANL, etc), and what was even conceptually (much less
practically) possible.</p>
<p>When I left LANL (2008), I was doing work with UNM (nod to Ed if
he's watching for nods) for various DoD types (DTRA most notably)
in the general field of intelligence fusion. Palantir wasn't a
*big* name yet but was "in the buzz" and represented (IMO) the
worst of what I described above... I didn't know much about the
PayPal Mafia or Peter Thiel then... </p>
<p>The Netflix? series "Person of Interest" and Peter Finch offer a
vague parallel but with Finch having a value set we might applaud,
not just envy (greedy-bastard-billionare)? The whole storyline
reads (watches) very differently today than it did back when it
was produced... yet another bit of fictional prophecy come to
fruition?<br>
</p>
<p>I think glen has made reference to his "investment strategies" or
maybe more to the point "aesthetic" in the past which I remember
approving uf, even if I can't remember the details. I suppose
*all* investments are "rent seeking". Noam Chomsky around 2002
visited UNM to give a public lecture and during the Q&A, NAFTA
came up as well as the question of "what are some socially
responsible investments?" and his answer was "socially responsible
investing is an oxymoron". The crowd, roughly half-students and
half tenured academics and other professional-class gave out an
equally loud sigh of relief/approval and of
chagrin/disappointment. <br>
</p>
<p>I didn't get off of Elno's coat-tails until he crawled into DJT's
ugly circle last year... I rode him "up" and "back down", feeling
uncomfortable the whole time... I *knew* that if/when DJT took the
White House with Elno's backing, TSLA would soar... and I
predicted it would also eventually fall... but either way, I
didn't want to make money off his assholery but even more I didn't
want to lose money over it either. I also divested from Bezos
and GoogleBois while taking them off my list for places to spend
money. I'd already avoided ZuckerSchmuck pretty well, so had less
to do there (I do have an instagram and a Oculus account, but
don't spend any money in their world, just let them mis-use my
eyeballs regularly?)</p>
<p>With the DumpsterFire administration we have now, I don't even
want to do my "rent seeking" with Government instruments... and
the CryptoNonsense is as bad/worse (esp with Trump's dirty fingers
in the pie). I think Gold is a bad thing to hoard, but then
*anything* is a bad thing to hoard! Besides US currency isn't
that good of mattress filler anyway... <br>
</p>
<p>Bah Humbuggery!<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 6/23/25 1:30 PM, Tom Johnson wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CABg8s8+s7RuaEG-xZycW+tRUHe3OuQQ4MRA=tDZaVugsgVROaQ@mail.gmail.com">
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<div dir="ltr"><img class="chq-track-image" alt=""
style="display:flex; border: 0; width: 0px; height: 0px"
src="https://www.cloudhq-mkt29.us/mail_track/mail/13c630f943ffa43095_1750707005473?uid=226430"
moz-do-not-send="true" width="0" height="0">Same thing for me,
Frank. I had Palintir for a long time, but unloaded it a couple
of weeks ago for, I hope, the correct ethical reasons.
<div>Tom</div>
</div>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, Jun 23, 2025 at
1:09 PM Frank Wimberly <<a
href="mailto:wimberly3@gmail.com" moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">wimberly3@gmail.com</a>>
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote"
style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="ltr">I read a little about Palantir last week and
then I checked their stock price. I put in an order to buy
10 shares at 138. Compared to other holdings, that's
trivial. I told my wife about the order and she seemed
worried. She usually doesn't care what I do regarding
stocks but she wanted to research PLTR. She decided that I
shouldn't buy it for moral and ethical reasons. I didn't
quite understand but I canceled the order. That's the first
time she has ever gotten involved. To be fair, most of our
investments that I manage are shares of the magnificent 7:
Amazon, Apple, etc.
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Frank</div>
</div>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, Jun 23, 2025 at
10:07 AM Merle Lefkoff <<a
href="mailto:merlelefkoff@gmail.com" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">merlelefkoff@gmail.com</a>>
wrote:<br>
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<div><a
href="https://beyondthefirewall.substack.com/p/palantirs-new-master-database-what?utm_source=multiple-personal-recommendations-email&utm_medium=email&triedRedirect=true"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">https://beyondthefirewall.substack.com/p/palantirs-new-master-database-what?utm_source=multiple-personal-recommendations-email&utm_medium=email&triedRedirect=true</a><br
clear="all">
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<span class="gmail_signature_prefix">-- </span><br>
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<div>Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D.<br>
Center for Emergent Diplomacy<br>
<a
href="http://emergentdiplomacy.org" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true">emergentdiplomacy.org</a></div>
<div>Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA</div>
<div><br>
mobile: (303) 859-5609<br>
</div>
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<span class="gmail_signature_prefix">-- </span><br>
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<div dir="ltr">Frank Wimberly<br>
140 Calle Ojo Feliz<br>
Santa Fe, NM 87505<br>
505 670-9918
<div><br>
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<div>Research: <a
href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Frank_Wimberly2"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Frank_Wimberly2</a></div>
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<span class="gmail_signature_prefix">-- </span><br>
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<div dir="ltr">++++++++++++++++++++++++++++<br>
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target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">tom@jtjohnson.com</a><br>
+1 505 577 6482<br>
Santa Fe, New Mexico USA<br>
<b><a href="https://nmwriters.org/" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true">New Mexico Writers</a><br>
</b>++++++++++++++++++++++++++++<br>
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