Story 237

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Palantir published a wildly unhinged manifesto today, which asserts software companies should help run national defense — and that society should reorganize itself around that idea, including bringing back the draft. Let that sink in — a software company sending your kid to war.

Alex Karp is childless. I am not. He’s going to send my sons to die in some endless war because he has everything to gain (in terms of greed & grift) while I have everything to lose? Sure, Jan. Can’t wait for all the mothers, who are 50% of the population, let you get away with that.

It is yet more patriarchal nonsense using fear to shock people into submission.

Some additional highlights from his “I’m an insecure little boy* beating my chest like a big man” nonsense:
• It collapses the line between private company and state power, where there is no accountable or oversight.
• Treats war/defense as an inevitable and primary organizing principle.
• Suggests ordinary citizens should give up privacy to their software in the name of protection.
• Frames dissent as naive or dangerous.

At first I was upset and outraged by this techno-fascist b*llshit, but was quickly reminded of my own belief: Alex Karp and Peter Thiel are just geeked-out little boys who didn’t get enough hugs from their mother and need to be mocked to hell. Seriously — they’re bullies who retreat at the first sign of pressure, and the minute Donald Trump is gone, they will be pushed out of the U.S. government and fined into non-existence.

The author Seth Harp put it best: “Palantir wants you to think they’re the dark overlords of the coming technofascist 4th Reich. The truth is rather more pathetic: Alex Karp is just a kooky right-wing sociologist and lawyer who bribes the Trump administration to buy his company’s useless product. Wow, so scary and Nietzschean. Alex Karp pretends to be an engineer because it makes it seem like he has practical skills. In reality, all he has are his sophomoric political opinions and a complete lack of shame around openly bribing the most corrupt presidential administration in American history.”

What does this have to do with Wall Street? It relates to Story 234. Wall Street firms, especially Citi, are in bed with these companies. Enablers, all. In Citi’s case, they are kowtowing to Trump, knowing his administration is in Palantir’s pocket. Can’t wait for them to blow tens of millions of dollars teaching Palantir about financial services — a sector they’ll be learning on the fly, on Citi’s dime. Only to fail because Citi can’t execute its way out of a paper bag – they can only cut corners and pay politicians to look the other way.

Here’s the thing: Alex said on an earnings call, “Palantir is here…to scare enemies and, on occasion, kill them.” This is not normal. We are in a cycle that is not normal. We must fight back against it.

The backlash in November will be enormous – it will mirror Hungary, I’ve no doubt. And very quickly Jane Fraser will pretend she was not licking Trump’s boots — the same way she licked Biden’s and instituted DEI, only to dismantle it the minute he was gone. She stands for nothing but personal gain.

Fortunately, real women have the power to organize and then vote these grifters into non-existence. It’s long overdue.

*Karp is petite; small men have many documented complexes. Maybe women should start commenting about men’s looks the way they do ours, endlessly. Also, he must do something with his hair. Can someone send this to him, please? It might help his dating chances and if only he got laid maybe he’d leave the rest of us alone.