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Anduril, Palantir and SpaceX are changing how America wages war
- cramsession 7mo ago[flagged]
- brap 7mo ago[flagged]
- wateralien 7mo agoAre they also changing the way America puts a new (wholly-owned) president in the white house in 2028 in order to approve these contracts?
- micromacrofoot 7mo agothey've got one in there right now, and have a successor lined up Peter Thiel is almost wholly responsible for JD Vance being in the White House
- smallmancontrov 7mo agoPeople underestimate how radical JD Vance is. He wrote an endorsement for the skull book, and not a "my buddy wrote a book that I totally read and you should too" endorsement, but one that restated the core argument: Democrats are secretly communists who want to communist genocide you and we should invoke the Iron Law of Reciprocity to preemptively ... them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unhumans https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unhumans During the election I thought this was mostly rhetoric, but now that the administration has turned ICE fully paramilitary and tried to get its base excited about murdering their political opposition, I'm not so sure.
- AnthonyMouse 7mo ago> Democrats are secretly communists who want to communist genocide you Isn't this just how politics looks now? The Republicans say that, the Democrats say the Republicans are secretly nazis who want to nazi genocide you, both parties contain millions of people so both can point to some extremists on the other side saying something shocking and then they both go back to trying to get 51% of the votes so they can be the ones picking your pocket this year. edit: It's beautiful how the two immediate replies to this post are, respectively, "it's not both sides because only the Democrats are actually Marxists" and "it's not both sides because only the Republicans are actually Fascists".
- micromacrofoot 7mo agoa republican mob stormed the capitol in an attempt to overthrow the election the republicans have actually started arresting people they don't like and building camps to imprison them in via ICE earlier they deported people, without trial, to foreign prisons to be kept indefinitely how long are we going to hand wave this away as "both sides are extreme"? this is a little more than the typical insider cronyism isn't it? edit: your edit is also wrong, and kind of validates that you're only seeing what you want to be seeing
- Zigurd 7mo agoAll five actual Marxist-Leninists in the US appreciate your attention. Now let's list the actual fascists. Symmetry is beautiful but sometimes it's just not there.
- smallmancontrov 7mo agoExactly: the tear-down-the-system left barely exists outside twitch and college campuses, while the far right has the presidency and majority control of the Republican party. These are not the same.
- smallmancontrov 7mo agoWhen things are this lopsided, both-sidesing is indistinguishable from sweeping for the bad one. Want to prove me wrong? Show me the last time Kamala Harris engaged in guillotine rhetoric (which is the left-coded equivalent). Point me to what you think the Democratic equivalent of the ICE killings are. Show me dead protestors and stifling of legal proceedings to hold them accountable. Show me Democratic fraud on the scale of the $40B swap line to Argentina, pumping and dumping the American economy by announcing on-again-off-again war, creating a board of peace / putting yourself in charge / giving it $10B, and shitcoin rugpulls.
- nancyminusone 7mo agoTrump is in it for himself, but can be bribed. Vance doesn't need to be bribed, he's in it for Thiel.
- panick21_ 7mo agoYeah JD Vance is a questionable politician who has not won that many election and those he did win he had massive sport behind him that was ideological. Its not even remotely clear at all that JD Vance has anywhere near the 'skill' of Trump on unifying so many wildly different groups. And JD Vance is a bottom feeder who attached himself to Trump in the right moment and was put as Vice president because some of the Hardcore Trump people didn't want a non-100% Trump Vice President. He didn't win an election to be Vice president. Thiel and friends can dream up anything, just like they dreamed of Orban winning in Hungary. But just because they were lucky in the last couple years, with a bunch of things, doesn't mean all their plans will work. Vance's political instincts are highly questionable.
- micromacrofoot 7mo agoIt appears he's reached the first seat in the line of succession without demonstrating any particular skills at all, so I take little comfort in the idea that this is maybe the end of his puppeted rise to power. With an 80 year old in office with nearly 3 years left of presidency, he may very well find himself in the highest office without the need of unifying anyone.
- beloch 7mo agoThis is what happens when you allow money to influence power without check. What can be done to curtail it? Ban corporate donations to political parties and PACs. Limit personal contributions. Implement campaign spending limits so parties can't spend hundreds of millions on an election if they somehow manage to get that much money. Other nations (e.g. Canada) do this. It's not perfect. Money is always looking for a way, and politicians are always looking for the kind of power that money buys. It's an eternal game of whack-a-mole, but it's a game worth playing. American politicians aren't going to propose this. Americans need to demand it.
- JohnMakin 7mo ago> Ban corporate donations to political parties and PACs Doubtful - the SC determined this was a 1st amendment right for corporations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_v._FEC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_v._FEC But it almost doesn't matter anymore - the bribing is being done so much in plain sight anymore, that these mechanisms are hardly needed anyway. It is a cultural rot that won't be fixed by "just make some rule," the people making the rules are the ones benefiting the most from the corruption.
- beloch 7mo agoIf every employee at a corporation has the right to free speech and to make political donations, why should the corporation itself have need of such rights? Just because big money won in 2010 doesn't mean the ruling should go unchallenged for all time. People, not capital, should have rights, because rights are there to protect people from power.
- JohnMakin 7mo agoI'm not being supportive of it, I'm explaining how unlikely it is that this ruling will be overturned. It tends to be very rare, especially a scope of 1st amendment ruling. that's just how that court works, and if it does happen, is on decades time scales, not a matter of a year or two, which is sort of what is needed right now. I would say in this case it's essentially impossible, given that this same SC also ruled that it's acceptable for they themselves to get "gifts" from politically motivated persons, as long as the gift is received after the act done, and no explicit quid pro quo conversation happened. In other words, they literally legalized bribery. There is no universe this court or any future court overturns this, the levers of power have been seized, no one is coming to save anyone, "vote harder" isn't going to work. If that sounds fatalistic or hard to read, sorry, but people have been predicting this outcome for 20+ years and nothing has come close to being done about it, much the opposite. reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snyder_v._United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snyder_v._United_States
- Svip 7mo agoAs an aside, it really irks me how Tolkien's names are used in this manner.
- MengerSponge 7mo agoWhen someone tells you who they are, believe them.
- randallsquared 7mo agoI guess we can believe they are Tolkien fans, then.
- AnthonyMouse 7mo agoThis is honestly a meaningless cliche. There is a bottled water company called Liquid Death, is that a reason to expect their product to be more hazardous than competitors? A lot of free software has traditionally used self-deprecating names, should we expect them to be bad as a result? How about when something is called Truth Social?
- prewett 7mo agoMy rule is, "if you have to say, it isn't". If the tofu were really yummy and tasty, you wouldn't need to say so on the package. (Some years ago, when Americans' idea of uses for tofu was mostly as a salad topping, Texas had a tofu brand that said "yummy and tasty!" on the package.) "Truth Social"? Probably a cesspool of lies. "Liquid Death"? Well, I would have expected it to be full of alcohol, capacsin, and/or cinnamon, not bottled water...
- mplanchard 7mo agoHe would be horrified. I’m a little surprised his estate hasn’t attempted to prevent it.
- kibwen 7mo agoAt my new startup, Ungoliant, we intend use AI-powered space-based mirrors to at long last achieve humanity's dream of plunging Arda into endless night. We're excited to have you join us in this exciting venture!
- exogeny 7mo agoI have a lot of deep ambivalence here. On one hand, I would rather Americans be safe. I don't want anyone in harm's way; if I absolutely had to choose, I'd rather we have superiority. On the other hand, the "the ends justifies the means" justification of the near constant erosion of civil liberties and due process is really, really concerning. And I do not trust, at all, the Rand-lite tech bro sociopaths or anyone in the Trump administration to do the right thing.
- Zigurd 7mo agoOur country is less safe because the people behind these technology companies have brought us to a place where NATO allies do not trust us, and we are implicated in war crimes facilitated by these technology companies.
- stonogo 7mo agoInteresting claims in this article that direcly conflict with Palantir publicly calling for universal conscription. If AI and robotics are going to keep people off the front lines, why would we need the draft?
- plastic-enjoyer 7mo ago> On one hand, I would rather Americans be safe. I don't want anyone in harm's way; if I absolutely had to choose, I'd rather we have superiority. To what extent does waging war contribute to increasing the safety of Americans? Every war the United States has started since WWII against another country has not been a defensive war, but an invasion by the U.S. itself. The United States has enjoyed global military dominance for decades. It has also become clear that even the world’s best military is no match for a large-scale psychological operation.
- SiempreViernes 7mo agoBe careful with dreams of superiority, those tend to make the other guy convinced you'll attack as soon as the gap gets wide enough and make them spend even more to "catch up". A few rounds of this and eventually both sides have worked themselves into a frenzy to motivate buying excessive amounts of weapons, and then finally something trivial makes someone important "that's it, that was the thing we got the guns for" and a few billion dollars in weapons go up in smoke along with some hundreds of human lives (if everything goes well).
- Zigurd 7mo agoGreat results so far!
- margalabargala 7mo agoFor real. Never before has so much money been made off stock market manipulation by the family of a sitting president.
- redeux 7mo agoPaywall so I can’t read the whole thing, but … > THE IRAN war may end up teaching America many lessons. One that it has learned the hard way is the woeful economics of using traditional weaponry against cheap Iranian drones. “The dynamics of the world have changed,” says Emil Michael, a former Silicon Valley executive who is now a senior official in the Pentagon. “You don’t want to spend a $1m missile to take out a $50,000 drone.” This would have been obvious to anyone following the war in Ukraine. The implication that we learned this from our attacks on Iran are absurd.
- isoprophlex 7mo agoWhy collectively learn a lesson, if you can get filthy rich as a bunch of individuals?
- SiempreViernes 7mo agoCareful, three months ago the claim that the US doesn't have a plan for what to do if Iran attacked shipping in the strait of Hormuz would be considered absurd. Also, there's nothing unusual about the big guy thinking they don't have to learn lessons from others and so ignore their experience.
- kevmo 7mo agoThis would have been obvious to anyone following the war in Vietnam, even. The Iranians have explicitly tweeted: "For years, we've been awaiting the Americans' entry into the designated points, and for over two decades, we've been training with the asymmetric warfare strategy for this very moment. Now, we have just one message for the American soldiers: Come closer." Also the war games from a quarter century ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Challenge_2002 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Challenge_2002
- mft_ 7mo agoOne would think, but some folks seem to struggle to learn from others' experiences, and need to experience things for themselves first. For example, the UK defense review that was published during the Ukraine War (in which the UK is closely supporting Ukraine) focused on traditional defense approaches (tanks, big boats, that sort of thing) and mostly ignored the need to upskill quickly in building, iterating, and deploying disposable cheap drones. Or, more generally, there are people who voted for the current US administration who are upset that the things that were promised in Project 2025 have actually been implemented and have now affected them personally and negatively.
- moralestapia 7mo agoAnd Thiel is behind all of them.
- andsoitis 7mo ago> And Thiel is behind all of them. In what way do you feel Thiel is "behind" SpaceX?
- moralestapia 7mo agohttps://x.com/AndrewBenson/status/2000605502292832754 https://x.com/AndrewBenson/status/2000605502292832754
- andsoitis 7mo agoinvestment != operational our architectural influence, unlike Anduril, for example.
- moralestapia 7mo agoHowever you measure "operational or architectural influence" it's definitely greater than zero and much more than what you and I have.
- ed_balls 7mo agoPalantir must be destroyed.
- inetknght 7mo agoWhy stop there?
- isodev 7mo agoAnd to think just a few days ago we got that photo from the Moon, putting in perspective just how tiny the Earth is in the grand scheme of things. We need more “for all of humanity” mindset instead of this “barbaric tribes beat each other over the head for sticky oil”
- deleted 7mo ago[deleted]
- inetknght 7mo ago> just how tiny the Earth is in the grand scheme of things In the grand scheme of things: humans are doing the granding, the scheming, and the things. Earth has a tiny bit of something to do with that.
- SiempreViernes 7mo agoI think you'll find it's really hard to lord over a big map on a table if you don't have the Earth to put the table on.
- sheikhnbake 7mo agoBoss just sent out an email with a company policy update. We're still expected to clock in even if the world is uninhabitable
- strulovich 7mo agoQuick reminder, the only humans to ever make it to the moon did it due to “barbaric tribes showing who’s better”. It wasn’t bankrolled with billions for the good of society. Being naive is fun, but being realistic about the species we are is better. And it seems we can leverage that to land on the moon. So it’s working as intended.
- magicalist 7mo ago> Quick reminder, the only humans to ever make it to the moon did it due to “barbaric tribes showing who’s better”. Weird to quote that when that's not what the GP said and appears to be a paraphrase that loses quite a bit of specificity and so misses the point: > We need more “for all of humanity” mindset instead of this “barbaric tribes beat each other over the head for sticky oil” Being realistic about the species is useful, but let's not be disingenuous for imaginary rhetorical points.
- david_shaw 7mo agoI don't have a subscription to The Economist, but I was interested in the concept of these organizations as "neo-primes." I found an article on The Cipher Brief describing them: https://www.thecipherbrief.com/defense-neoprime-innovation https://www.thecipherbrief.com/defense-neoprime-innovation Specifically, the idea here is that companies like Anduril, Palantir, and SpaceX are rapidly delivering cutting-edge technology (including software) as opposed to the traditional defense contractor process of long, drawn out, super expensive projects mostly focused on hardware (such as building a new type of jet). It makes sense: this is basically what happened in civilian tech, too. Delivering high-tech solutions quickly -- dare I say with agility -- is usually the superior approach.
- alephnerd 7mo agoBasically it's a return to the pre-1990s model of defense iteration - dual use components constantly iterated on by newer challengers in direct competition or partnership with larger players. This is a model most countries are working on now - from China to France to Russia to Ukraine to India to South Korea to ... Also, for all of HN's moaning, this has bipartisan support in both parties. Based on my network, NatSec and Defense Policy roles haven't seen significant turnover irrespective of admin and those of us in the space are aligned with America irrespective of who's in the White House. It's the same way how at SF Climate Week right now where plenty of founders in the space are taking conversations with VCs irrespective of political opinions. Climate and GreenTech is dual use, and even a couple European trade commissions have been working on introducing their startups here and helping them expand IP and R&D headcount IN the US. Clearly the overlap between pissy HNer and people doing s#it doesn't overlap as much anymore.
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- sosomoxie 7mo agoPalantir just ran a full page add in the NYT saying that they "stand with Israel", they also just released a techno-fascist manifesto. We've already seen people shooting at Sam Altman's house, I feel like Palantir is openly inviting citizens to practice self-defense against their executives.
- isoprophlex 7mo agoThey stand with making shitloads of money off a horrible humanitarian clusterfuck that's atm rippled out into destabilizing the global economy. Absolutely insane.
- Teever 7mo agoI've been wondering for a while now what sort of air defense if any the US military has around SpaceX launch sites. After watching videos of Russian and now gulf state oil & gas infrastructure being blown up by small drones for the past while I've come to realize the obvious reality that a SpaceX rocket -- particularly Starship is an extremely vulnerable and expensive target. It seems totally feasible for a nation state or even an individual to short SpaceX stock after it goes public and then blow up a rocket or two on the launch pad.
- hparadiz 7mo agoWithout being drawn too much into politics I can't imagine anything more unamerican than universal civil service. Of course a dweeb like Karp would push this bullshit. I dare anyone to explain to me how, exactly, it's any different from communism.
- BoredPositron 7mo agoIt really just rhymes. Happy New guilded age America.
- Zigurd 7mo agoI know it's not a good look to be the grammar Nazi, but an actual guilded age in the form of collective bargaining for labor might be preferable to this new gilded age.
- BoredPositron 7mo agoFunny enough it stays lol
- johnbarron 7mo agoPalantir CEO is a Psychopath: "CEO of Palantir, described people killed in the Gaza Genocide as “useful idiots”" https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/comments/1sp4rpd/alex_karp_ceo_of_palantir_described_people_killed/ https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/comments/1sp4rpd/ale... "12% of corporate leaders are psychopaths. It’s time to take this problem seriously" https://fortune.com/2021/06/06/corporate-psychopaths-business-leadership-csr/ https://fortune.com/2021/06/06/corporate-psychopaths-busines... And Musk well its a whole classification on its own... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk_salute_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk_salute_controversy https://www.thedailybeast.com/elon-musk-sued-by-british-diver-he-called-a-pedo-guy-child-rapist https://www.thedailybeast.com/elon-musk-sued-by-british-dive... https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/these-federal-employees-were-purged-by-doge-months-later-the-trump-administration-is-asking-if-they-want-to-return https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/these-federal-employee... https://www.timesofisrael.com/musk-endorses-tweet-claiming-jews-stoke-hatred-of-white-people-as-the-actual-truth/ https://www.timesofisrael.com/musk-endorses-tweet-claiming-j...
- panick21_ 7mo agoIn principle not relaying on the same old contractors is not a bad thing. SpaceX has genuine capability that literally nobody else in the world has. Same might be true for the others but that's hard to tell. And its not like the old primes are 'good' guys either. So the fact that Anduril makes its money from government isn't really special or surprising. If anything is surprising its how much money SpaceX makes out of government. And embracing some of these capabilities is what a smart government would do. What a smart government wouldn't do is to have a literal clown 'run' the show talking about 'mass-killing' and 'DoW' and all the other Buzzword nonsense that is mostly about signaling to Trump himself. Not getting locked into one system is good, but not using advanced capabilities because there is only one supplier is bad. Its not SpaceX fault that Vulcan has been a shitshow for example. But while on the merits many of these things can be defended, the way and process its arrived at is almost everything you don't want to have happen.