Opening text of a thread by Palantir from X Because we get asked a lot. The Technological Republic, in brief. 1. Silicon Valley owes a moral debt to the country that made its rise possible. The engineering elite of Silicon Valley has an affirmative obligation to participate in the defense of the nation. 2. We must rebel against the tyranny of the apps. Is the iPhone our greatest creative if not crowning achievement as a civilization? The object has changed our lives, but it may also now be limiting and constraining our sense of the possible. 3. Free email is not enough. The decadence of a culture or civilization, and indeed its ruling class, will be forgiven only if that culture is capable of delivering economic growth and security for the public. 4. The limits of soft power, of soaring rhetoric alone, have been exposed. The ability of free and democratic societies to prevail requires something more than moral appeal. It requires hard power, and hard power in this century will be built on software.

Palantir put out a 22-point summary of their CEO's book The Technological Republic. It's pitched as a defence of the West, but if you read it through the VDA framework, verification, deliberation, accountability, what it's actually doing looks rather different.
twitter-thread.com/t/2045574398...

‘Everyone is Replaceable’: Death Rattles Oregon Amazon Facility A worker died at Amazon’s Troutdale warehouse last week. Employees were told to look away.

For more than a week, Amazon has managed to keep a death at its Troutdale, Oregon, facility out of public view.

Workers I spoke to are pissed.

Almost Half of US Data Centers That Were Supposed to Open This Year Slated to Be Canceled or Delayed The vast majority of data centers scheduled for completion over the next few years have yet to even break ground.

It's indeed possible to beat bad things backed by big money

Trump State Dept. Accused of ‘Largest Fee Fraud in History’ of US Immigration System | Common Dreams An immigration researcher at the Cato Institute found that the Trump administration is "raking in billions of dollars in

According to the Cato Institute, The Trump administration is reportedly receiving millions of immigration applications, pocketing the hefty fees, and never processing the applications.

It’s collected over $1 billion in fees so far.

Where is the outcry over this fraud and abuse?

"Americans prefer a car-dependent lifestyle."

I can't tell you how much I hate this glib sentiment. The only way to determine someone's true, enduring preference is to give them full familiarity with their options. Americans have no familiarity with their options! They've only seen sprawl!

Not for long!

Getting up off the floor quickly & easily is potentially life-saving. Thanks burpees!

Gladys Mae West obituary: mathematician who pioneered GPS technology She made key contributions to US cold-war science despite facing huge barriers as a Black woman.

No joke: I got angry hate mail today for writing an obituary of a Black woman scientist—because the person felt she did didn’t deserve the recognition.

Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Pursued by federal agents, suburban ICE observers remain resolved After a frightening pursuit by federal agents, suburban ICE observers say fear hasn’t stopped them from protecting their communities.

“If I am killed doing this, throw my body at the White House, martyr the shit out of me & raise hell. Do not be sad. Do not think I would do anything differently. I would do it over & over again — this is too important to sit down & shut up and not do anything.” www.mprnews.org/story/2026/0...

There Must Be Retribution Abolishing ICE isn't enough. So what is?

I wrote a quick piece about what it would really mean to abolish ICE

in trying to understand what makes ICE and CBP so dangerous right now, it is tempting to imagine some new lack of training or experience or professionalism—and not grapple with the truth that a white nationalist movement has put more power and force behind their existing mission

Minnesota is the best of us.

His name is Liam Ramos, and he is 5. He was abducted from Minneapolis and trafficked to a detention camp in Texas.

I always read it as DARVO, which feels appropriate.

we are still years out from the Democratic primary, and I think it is genuinely deranged that there’s people out there who believe there’s no other choice and thus we must rally around the flag of, all people, Gavin Fucking Newsom to save the republic

i don't really give a shit if consultants think being anti-ICE is "good messaging" or whatever when people are actively being shot, beat, gassed and jailed.

my teacher friend asked, if people have more to give, to help meet the goal on this rent relief fund they have set up for families unable to live home due to their status.

if we did $2k in 20 minutes we can do $24k by the end of the day, right?

please amplify!

ICE is not the victim MAGA lies can’t hide the real damage done to people like Renee Nicole Good

I've been planning to write for a long time about how ICE and their allies sure are a bunch of whiny bitches, for all they talk about how tough they are.

I'm sad that this is the occasion.

But by god, these "tough" guys are pathetic cowards.

www.salon.com/2026/01/09/i...

I consciously let go of a resentment I’d been carrying around for years.

A silver KitchenAid mixer with a black & white kitten peering mischievously from the bowl.

Here’s mine with bonus kitten.

I’m an “A.i.” abolitionist - gregpak.net I’m an “A.i.” abolitionist. No consumer-facing LLMs or generative “A.i.” in anything. Sure, machine learning in science and a f...

I'm an "A.i." abolitionist. Here's why.

gregpak.net/2025/12/19/i...

I once went on a Tinder date with a man who asked me to download his app on the date, then texted me a few days later to ask me to give his app 5 stars. There was not a 2nd date.

People think "politics" is what you say, but politics is in fact how you wield power. In that sense, driving a car is one of the most profound ways to reveal what your actual politics are.

How people drive reveals the sickness at the heart of our society: wanting power, but not responsibility.

In the Times today there’s an op-ed saying that childless women may have legitimate “private” reasons for declining to give birth. But one reason I have is not private but explicitly political: I want my life to serve as a rebuke to the notion that childbearing is women’s highest or truest calling.

What We Can Do About ICE ICE is in the Bay Area. And yes, we can all do something about it.

COYOTE put together some tips and resources that will always be free to access www.coyotemedia.org/what-we-can-...

‘Car Brain’ Is Making the US Unhealthy and Dangerous. EVs Won’t Fix It. A trio of new books argue that we need to confront the full range of costs that car-based living has imposed on our cities, our health and our society.

Three newly published books argue that cars are destroying society as well as the planet.

Is the world finally ready to rein in the automobile?

My essay, in @bloomberg.com (gift link below)

Federal agents shoot woman they say 'boxed in' authorities in Brighton Park Authorities were on patrol when they were "rammed by 10 cars," according to a statement from the Department of Homeland Security. One of the drivers "was armed with a semi-automatic weapon," prompting...

U.S. Border Patrol agents shot a woman on Saturday morning in Brighton Park marking the second shooting since President Donald Trump’s administration launched an aggressive immigration enforcement operation in the area last month, the @chicago.suntimes.com reports

What Would Trans Compromise Even Look Like? (The Right Won't Accept It) Conservatives and complicit centrists have obliterated every trans compromise position, so I don't know what we're supposed to do now. How would you react if I said that puberty blockers were once th...

Please read and share and consider becoming a paid subscriber. I depend on the generosity of my readers to continue to do this work as my opportunities within mainstream media get smaller and smaller. <3 burns-notice.ghost.io/what-would-t...

No. Your friends don't secretly hate you. You're just dehydrated.