24 ms·

Corruption at its finest

throwaway84742 9y ago
They actually sued the government regarding corrupt practices when awarding contracts. They won the lawsuit.
jonnybgood 9y ago
In what way is this corruption? You will actually find many in the intelligence community who actually like Palantir’s software. I’m really not surprised by the contract.
- confounded 9y ago
  Peter Theil threw his weight and cash behind getting Trump into office, and joined his transition team once the election was won. As the article says he also helped fill administration positions with right-wing Stanford/Clarium/Palantir pals like Trae Stephens. He founded and is the majority shareholder in Palantir.
  - jonnybgood 9y ago
    Palantir was popular in the intelligence community long before Trump.
    - confounded 9y ago
      Indeed. I imagine they’re about to get a lot more popular though.
  - xiphias 9y ago
    Which means he has at least 500x ROI on the $1M campaign doation. Quite good return in 1-2 years.
  - dominotw 9y ago
    So only acceptable option here is to ban Plantir and Theil companies from govt contracts?
    - noobermin 9y ago
      Yes. Your political connections should not give you advantages in garnering government money.
      - dominotw 9y ago
        That makes no sense. Wouldn't that be like punishing Theil for supporting a political candidate? This fundamental right should be taken away from ppl who have companies that could apply for govt contracts. Even if assume that this contract was awarded due to corruption. Wouldn't that also mean we have no way to control corruption and hold ppl accountable so we resort to absurd policies like banning ppl from their free speech rights.
        confounded 9y ago
        Do you really believe that money is speech?
        dominotw 9y ago
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckley_v._Valeo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckley_v._Valeo
- jadedhacker 9y ago
  Palentir exists because unconstitutional, illegal or retroactively legal, and in any case absolutely breathtakingly overreaching mass spying (including domestic spying via incidental collection) programs like Stellar Wind, Muscular, XKEYSCORE, Prism, etc exist. Palantir's job is to take massive amounts of data and make it intelligible using visualization and search tools. It makes money off of programs that either shouldn't exist or should be severely restricted.
  - jonnybgood 9y ago
    > Palantir's job is to take massive amounts of data and make it intelligible using visualization and search tools. You just described Google and many other tech companies. There's nothing illegal about that.
    - jadedhacker 9y ago
      The purpose matters. Google isn't collecting data to make it easier for an attached organization to kill people or disrupt other societies in calculated ways. Also important are the fact that Google's collection processes depend on some kind of consent and aren't collected by the state monopoly on force. The state is considered by many to be reneging on its 4th amendment due process protections by engaging in a domestic and worldwide dragnet of breathtaking proportions.

They actually sued the government regarding corrupt practices when awarding contracts. They won the lawsuit.

In what way is this corruption? You will actually find many in the intelligence community who actually like Palantir’s software. I’m really not surprised by the contract.

confounded 9y ago
Peter Theil threw his weight and cash behind getting Trump into office, and joined his transition team once the election was won. As the article says he also helped fill administration positions with right-wing Stanford/Clarium/Palantir pals like Trae Stephens. He founded and is the majority shareholder in Palantir.
- jonnybgood 9y ago
  Palantir was popular in the intelligence community long before Trump.
  - confounded 9y ago
    Indeed. I imagine they’re about to get a lot more popular though.
- xiphias 9y ago
  Which means he has at least 500x ROI on the $1M campaign doation. Quite good return in 1-2 years.
- dominotw 9y ago
  So only acceptable option here is to ban Plantir and Theil companies from govt contracts?
  - noobermin 9y ago
    Yes. Your political connections should not give you advantages in garnering government money.
    - dominotw 9y ago
      That makes no sense. Wouldn't that be like punishing Theil for supporting a political candidate? This fundamental right should be taken away from ppl who have companies that could apply for govt contracts. Even if assume that this contract was awarded due to corruption. Wouldn't that also mean we have no way to control corruption and hold ppl accountable so we resort to absurd policies like banning ppl from their free speech rights.
      - confounded 9y ago
        Do you really believe that money is speech?
        dominotw 9y ago
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckley_v._Valeo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckley_v._Valeo
jadedhacker 9y ago
Palentir exists because unconstitutional, illegal or retroactively legal, and in any case absolutely breathtakingly overreaching mass spying (including domestic spying via incidental collection) programs like Stellar Wind, Muscular, XKEYSCORE, Prism, etc exist. Palantir's job is to take massive amounts of data and make it intelligible using visualization and search tools. It makes money off of programs that either shouldn't exist or should be severely restricted.
- jonnybgood 9y ago
  > Palantir's job is to take massive amounts of data and make it intelligible using visualization and search tools. You just described Google and many other tech companies. There's nothing illegal about that.
  - jadedhacker 9y ago
    The purpose matters. Google isn't collecting data to make it easier for an attached organization to kill people or disrupt other societies in calculated ways. Also important are the fact that Google's collection processes depend on some kind of consent and aren't collected by the state monopoly on force. The state is considered by many to be reneging on its 4th amendment due process protections by engaging in a domestic and worldwide dragnet of breathtaking proportions.