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.TomOn Mon, Jun 23, 2025 at 1:09 PM Frank Wimberly <[email protected]> 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 <[email protected]> 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 .- .-.. .-.. / ..-. --- --- - . .-. ... / .- .-. . / .-- .-. --- -. --. / ... --- -- . / .- .-. . / ..- ... . ..-. ..- .-.. FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom https://bit.ly/virtualfriam to (un)subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ archives: 5/2017 thru present https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/ 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/-- Frank Wimberly140 Calle Ojo Feliz Santa Fe, NM 87505 505 670-9918 Research: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Frank_Wimberly2 .- .-.. .-.. / ..-. --- --- - . .-. ... / .- .-. . / .-- .-. --- -. --. / ... --- -- . / .- .-. . / ..- ... . ..-. ..- .-.. FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom https://bit.ly/virtualfriam to (un)subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ archives: 5/2017 thru present https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/ 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/ -- ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Tom Johnson - [email protected] +1 505 577 6482 Santa Fe, New Mexico USA *New Mexico Writers <https://nmwriters.org/> *++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ .- .-.. .-.. / ..-. --- --- - . .-. ... / .- .-. . / .-- .-. --- -. --. / ... --- -- . / .- .-. . / ..- ... . ..-. ..- .-.. FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoomhttps://bit.ly/virtualfriam to (un)subscribehttp://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM-COMIChttp://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ archives: 5/2017 thru presenthttps://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/ 1/2003 thru 6/2021http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/
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