[FRIAM] The whole story about Palantir

Mon Jun 23 16:46:37 EDT 2025

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.

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...

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?

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.

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?)

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...

Bah Humbuggery!

On 6/23/25 1:30 PM, Tom Johnson wrote:
> 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.
> Tom
>
> On Mon, Jun 23, 2025 at 1:09 PM Frank Wimberly <wimberly3 at gmail.com> 
> wrote:
>
>     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.
>
>     Frank
>
>     On Mon, Jun 23, 2025 at 10:07 AM Merle Lefkoff
>     <merlelefkoff at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>         https://beyondthefirewall.substack.com/p/palantirs-new-master-database-what?utm_source=multiple-personal-recommendations-email&utm_medium=email&triedRedirect=true
>         <https://beyondthefirewall.substack.com/p/palantirs-new-master-database-what?utm_source=multiple-personal-recommendations-email&utm_medium=email&triedRedirect=true>
>
>         -- 
>         Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D.
>         Center for Emergent Diplomacy
>         emergentdiplomacy.org <http://emergentdiplomacy.org>
>         Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
>
>         mobile:  (303) 859-5609
>
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>     Frank Wimberly
>     140 Calle Ojo Feliz
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> -- 
> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> Tom Johnson - tom at jtjohnson.com
> +1 505 577 6482
> Santa Fe, New Mexico USA
> *New Mexico Writers <https://nmwriters.org/>
> *++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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