Free Republic

Tax bods characterize it more as a brainstorming session, says Elon's unit wasn't involvedCongressional Democrats are again demanding answers from a federal agency over whether DOGE's latest tech makeover could put taxpayer data at risk. The latest please-explain-this-DOGE-activity letter letter [PDF] landed yesterday on the desk of the Internal Revenue Service's acting inspector general, Heather Hill. It is from Representative Gerry Connolly (D-VA), the ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and perennial DOGE gadfly. This time, Connolly is demanding answers about a 30-day "hackathon" reportedly launched last month by DOGE staffers embedded at the IRS, in...

This entire post is the result of a thought experiment and subsequent research. The question I asked myself was, “What if, knowingly or not, the Trump administration was continuity rather than revolutionary? The Digital Control Grid: Hidden in Plain SightAmerica's digital control grid wasn't built overnight. It wasn't constructed in secret underground bunkers by shadowy figures. It was assembled piece by piece, in broad daylight, marketed as progress, convenience, and most powerfully – as patriotism. The genius of this system is in its branding. Surveillance becomes "efficiency." Digital ID becomes "sovereignty." Compliance becomes "freedom." And we're witnessing this transformation accelerate...

An FBI agent who was once the handler for tech billionaire Peter Thiel, and who later criticized the bureau for allegedly suppressing investigations into ties between Rudy Giuliani and Russian intelligence assets, was arrested this week on charges of illegally disclosing classified information, according to court records filed Tuesday. Johnathan Buma, who has worked for the FBI for 15 years, allegedly printed copies of confidential FBI documents and messages and later shared the material with associates as part of a draft of a book he was writing on his time in the bureau. He was arrested Monday at a departure...

“Do you want to see my guns?” he asked. One of Karp’s hobbies is long-range shooting, whose targets fall outside the normal parameters of a firearm, he explained. He struck a stance to show the blend of practice and instinct that combines for the perfect shot. Those fans, Karp said, tend to have been through an experience in their own lives that mirrors the skepticism that greeted Palantir. “I said X, everyone in the establishment said Y, and Y meant X was stupid,” he said. He added: “The Y people essentially are complete bigots, by the way. Please write that...

When tech luminaries talk about their Christian faith, people listen.Everything clicked when Peter Thiel gave the speech about God.The occasion was a 40th birthday party for Trae Stephens, who is Mr. Thiel’s venture capital partner as well as one of the founders of Anduril Industries, a maker of high-tech defense systems and weaponry. It was a multiday affair, held in 2023 at Mr. Stephens’s home in New Mexico. It began with an evening roasting the birthday boy, followed by another toasting him and then a brunch with caviar bumps, mimosas and breakfast pizza. At the brunch (the theme was the...

No joke: Wired wants you to believe this is a bad thing. The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Government Takeover Engineers between 19 and 24, most linked to Musk’s companies, are playing a key role as he seizes control of federal infrastructure. WWW.WIRED.COM https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-government-young-engineers/ "Elon Musk's Government Takeover" Gotta love the pea-sized brains over at Wired. Elon Musk's takeover of federal government infrastructure is ongoing, and at the center of things is a coterie of engineers who are barely out of — and in at least one case, purportedly still in — college. Elon isn't taking over anything. He's...

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s top aides bluntly told lawmakers in a private meeting on Wednesday that if Congress fails to authorize additional military aid for Ukraine in the coming days, Russia could win the war in a matter of weeks — months at best, according to two people familiar with the meeting.National security adviser Jake Sullivan and the Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told the lawmakers that Ukraine will run out of certain air defense and artillery capabilities in the coming weeks, according to the people familiar with the meeting.The grim assessment, which one White House official described...

Palantir Technologies (PLTR.N) has cultivated a powerful mythos worthy of being named for a crystal ball from “The Lord of the Rings.” The data-analysis company co-founded by Peter Thiel and run by Alex Karp fetches a big premium to most of its peers. Financial realities, however, suggest the valuation is the stuff of science fiction. Demand is quickly rising for software using artificial intelligence that can make sense out of voluminous and disparate data to flag suspicious financial transactions or defend against military attacks. Yet Palantir’s top line is only expected to grow 16% this year, according to forecasts gathered...

German-American far-right billionaire investor Peter Thiel was just revealed as an FBI informant as recently as 2021, according to a new report from Insider. Insider reported that alt-right activist Charles Johnson, also an FBI informant, initially introduced Thiel to Los Angeles-based FBI agent Johnathan Buma, who investigates political corruption and foreign influence campaigns. Following Johnson's introduction, the FBI allegedly added Thiel to its official database of "confidential human source" (CHS) informants, according to Insider. In order to be added to this database, multiple layers of approval are typically required, and only those able to provide "valuable information ... on a...

Ohio conservatives! Ignore the lies being spread about my friend Josh Mandel, funded by billionaire Peter Thiel and spread by JD Vance! Vote for Josh Mandel, the only PROVEN conservative in the Ohio GOP Senate primary!https://t.co/m34oekMCNf— Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) May 1, 2022

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Peter Thiel is an optimist. Standing before a room full of nearly 100 right-of-center student journalists on Friday night, he told the crowd “we are not on the losing side of history.” But a “reformation” needs to happen first, the billionaire tech mogul and libertarian philanthropist said. “Universities today are as corrupt as the Catholic Church of 500 years ago,” Thiel said. During his speech, he spoke of an academia that has shut down debate, excommunicated conservative scholars, and insisted a college degree is the only way to “salvation,” that being a good job and solid future....

The company said it won a $823 million contract to provide the Army with its Gotham platform, which is “an operating system for defense decision making and is specifically designed to connect the dots between disparate sources,” Palantir said in a statement. Palantir said the platform will “support Army Intelligence users worldwide with a globally federated Intelligence data fabric and analytics platform spanning multiple security classifications.”

Video at link.

Tea Party-backed Senate candidate Ted Cruz points with pride to the army of small conservative donors supporting him. But his largest longtime contributor is a gay billionaire who supports same-sex marriage and marijuana legalization, campaign finance filings show. Peter Thiel, a German-born hedge fund manager and founder of the online payment system PayPal, gave Cruz $251,000 in 2009 for his aborted run for attorney general. The money represented 19 percent of the total raised for that campaign, which Cruz ended after Attorney General Greg Abbott decided to run for re-election. Thiel’s political and financial support for gay rights and legal...

As controversy rises around deportations underway across the U.S., a new report says Palantir, the secretive Palo Alto security firm co-founded by Peter Thiel, has built “the engine for Donald Trump’s deportation machine.” Trump has brought in new policies directing authorities to ramp up arrests and deportation of people in the U.S. illegally. And Palantir, valued at $20 billion, is key to that effort, according to a report published March 2. The company did not respond immediately to a request for comment. In 2014, Palantir won a $41 million contract to build and maintain an intelligence system called Investigative Case...

A message from the Rebel Alliance follows article. The Weaponization of the U.S. government against non-compliant citizens continues today with the U.S. Department of Labor now targeting Peter Thiel:   (Via CNN Money) The U.S. Department of Labor filed a lawsuit Monday against Palantir, a data software startup said to be valued at more than $20 billion, for allegedly being biased against hiring Asian candidates. The secretive startup was cofounded by Peter Thiel, an investor and Facebook board member who has emerged as perhaps the most prominent Donald Trump supporter in the tech industry. Thiel is also known for backing lawsuits against Gawker...

I was excited when I first heard that Peter Thiel was going to be a speaker at the Republican National Convention.  While everyone naturally focuses on what Trump and Pence will have to say, Thiel, often labeled an “eccentric billionaire,” could help rebrand the Trump-era GOP. Like Trump, Thiel is flamboyant and loves shaking things up.  Andrew Styles of Heat Street: Thiel, who is also a Trump delegate to the convention, is an interesting choice. In some ways, Thiel’s support for Trump makes a lot of sense. Both are billionaires who like to disrupt the sh*t out of the status...

Since rumors began to spread that a startup called Palantir helped to kill Osama bin Laden, Alex Karp hasn’t had much time to himself. On one sun-baked July morning in Silicon Valley Palantir’s lean 45-year-old chief executive, with a top-heavy mop of frazzled hair, hikes the grassy hills around Stanford University’s massive satellite antennae known as the Dish, a favorite meditative pastime. But his solitude is disturbed somewhat by “Mike,” an ex-Marine–silent, 6 foot 1, 270 pounds of mostly pectoral muscle–who trails him everywhere he goes. Even on the suburban streets of Palo Alto, steps from Palantir’s headquarters, the bodyguard...

“PRISM” is the government’s name for a program that uses technology from Palantir. Palantir is a Silicon Valley start-up that’s now valued at well over $1B, that focuses on data analysis for the government. Here’s how Palantir describes themselves: “We build software that allows organizations to make sense of massive amounts of disparate data. We solve the technical problems, so they can solve the human ones. Combating terrorism. Prosecuting crimes. Fighting fraud. Eliminating waste. From Silicon Valley to your doorstep, we deploy our data fusion platforms against the hardest problems we can find, wherever we are needed most.” http://www.palantir.com/what-we-do/