Get Out the Vote
11.5K posts
@DavidSEvans29
Pragmatic progressive. 90% politics, 10% movies.
Conservative Judge J. Michael Luttig is warning that Trump is already preparing to rig the 2026 midterms, not by one single scheme but by a whole “buffet of options” to throw the election into chaos. Think about what that menu looks like in plain English: – Flooding the country with lies about “fraud” before a single vote is counted – Trying to get control of voting machines and election administration – Looking for excuses to call out troops under the Insurrection Act to intimidate and suppress Luttig warns that if we don’t defend the system in 2026, we may not get anything resembling a real election in 2028. In other words: this is not a normal midterm. It’s a stress test of whether we still have a functioning democracy at all.
🚨 ICE Glasses are coming - specialized smart glasses designed by and for the Department of Homeland Security, documents reveal: kenklippenstein.com/p/exclusive-ic…
Palantir is building a privately managed state! Let’s stop the bullshit. Palantir is not a normal tech company, and it never was. It is what happens when surveillance, militarism, elite ideology, and software get fused into one machine. Its own public messaging now reads less like product marketing and more like a doctrine for a colder political order, one where war, control, and obedience are treated as moral necessities rather than things that should terrify free people. This company is already fed by the state btw. In its 2025 annual report, Palantir said 54% of its revenue came from government customers. The Pentagon then moved Palantir’s Maven system into CORE military status, with long term institutional funding, and NATO acquired Palantir’s AI enabled warfighting system for Allied Command Operations. So when Palantir talks like a political actor, people should understand that it is not speaking from the sidelines. No, it is already wired into the bloodstream of Western power. And that is the part too many idiots still miss. Palantir is not “just” analytics. It is an instrument for making populations, borders, battlefields, bureaucracies, and institutions more legible to power. Palantir won a $30 million ICE contract in 2025 tied to identifying undocumented immigrants. In Britain (wtf are you doing brits?), Palantir is already deeply embedded in the NHS Federated Data Platform under a £330 million, 7 year contract, and many warned 2 days ago that the UK now has a weak hand in that test case because dependency is already setting in. . That is how this shit works. First it is a tool. Then it becomes infrastructure. Then it becomes impossible to remove without pain. This is why Palantir is so dangerous to any serious idea of democracy. Populists do not just want applause. They want machinery. They want systems that can classify faster, flag faster, correlate faster, and act faster. They want less friction, less oversight, less delay, less human hesitation. Palantir offers exactly that. Not persuasion, but sorting. Not public reason, but operational dominance. Not democratic patience, but decision compression at scale. The modern authoritarian does not arrive with a speech first. He arrives with software and money. The governance structure makes it even worse. Palantir’s filings show that the founders retain extraordinary voting power through special share structures and founder voting arrangements that can preserve up to 49.999999% of voting power in key circumstances. Peter Thiel remains chairman, and he is an early supporter of Trump. So what you have here is not just a contractor. You have a founder controlled company, tied to hard power, embedded in state systems, adjacent to reactionary political networks, and openly drifting from “we build tools” into “we will tell civilization what it needs.” That is rotten as fuck. And no, the problem is not that Palantir is “controversial.” The problem is that it is normalizing a model in which private firms become the operating layer beneath war, borders, health, and internal administration at the same time. Once that happens, elections still exist, parliaments still talk, judges still issue opinions, but real power starts drifting downward into systems most citizens will never see and cannot meaningfully challenge. That is how freedom dies in the digital age. Not with 1 giant dramatic moment. With procurement contracts, dependency, classified integrations, and executives telling you this is all necessary for security. Palantir is the kind of company that should make people deeply uncomfortable. Because it is effective. Because it is connected. Because it is ideological. Because it sits exactly where the worst instincts of the state meet the most powerful tools of modern computation. And because once a machine like that is fully normalized, good luck trying to claw the fucking power back.
NY Post: Governor Gavin Newsom’s team is reportedly looking at backing Xavier Becerra for the next California governor after he saw a sudden spike in the polls following Eric Swalwell’s downfall. nypost.com/2026/04/19/us-…
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. 5. The question is not whether A.I. weapons will be built; it is who will build them and for what purpose. Our adversaries will not pause to indulge in theatrical debates about the merits of developing technologies with critical military and national security applications. They will proceed. 6. National service should be a universal duty. We should, as a society, seriously consider moving away from an all-volunteer force and only fight the next war if everyone shares in the risk and the cost. 7. If a U.S. Marine asks for a better rifle, we should build it; and the same goes for software. We should as a country be capable of continuing a debate about the appropriateness of military action abroad while remaining unflinching in our commitment to those we have asked to step into harm’s way. 8. Public servants need not be our priests. Any business that compensated its employees in the way that the federal government compensates public servants would struggle to survive. 9. We should show far more grace towards those who have subjected themselves to public life. The eradication of any space for forgiveness—a jettisoning of any tolerance for the complexities and contradictions of the human psyche—may leave us with a cast of characters at the helm we will grow to regret. 10. The psychologization of modern politics is leading us astray. Those who look to the political arena to nourish their soul and sense of self, who rely too heavily on their internal life finding expression in people they may never meet, will be left disappointed. 11. Our society has grown too eager to hasten, and is often gleeful at, the demise of its enemies. The vanquishing of an opponent is a moment to pause, not rejoice. 12. The atomic age is ending. One age of deterrence, the atomic age, is ending, and a new era of deterrence built on A.I. is set to begin. 13. No other country in the history of the world has advanced progressive values more than this one. The United States is far from perfect. But it is easy to forget how much more opportunity exists in this country for those who are not hereditary elites than in any other nation on the planet. 14. American power has made possible an extraordinarily long peace. Too many have forgotten or perhaps take for granted that nearly a century of some version of peace has prevailed in the world without a great power military conflict. At least three generations — billions of people and their children and now grandchildren — have never known a world war. 15. The postwar neutering of Germany and Japan must be undone. The defanging of Germany was an overcorrection for which Europe is now paying a heavy price. A similar and highly theatrical commitment to Japanese pacifism will, if maintained, also threaten to shift the balance of power in Asia. 16. We should applaud those who attempt to build where the market has failed to act. The culture almost snickers at Musk’s interest in grand narrative, as if billionaires ought to simply stay in their lane of enriching themselves . . . . Any curiosity or genuine interest in the value of what he has created is essentially dismissed, or perhaps lurks from beneath a thinly veiled scorn. 17. Silicon Valley must play a role in addressing violent crime. Many politicians across the United States have essentially shrugged when it comes to violent crime, abandoning any serious efforts to address the problem or take on any risk with their constituencies or donors in coming up with solutions and experiments in what should be a desperate bid to save lives. 18. The ruthless exposure of the private lives of public figures drives far too much talent away from government service. The public arena—and the shallow and petty assaults against those who dare to do something other than enrich themselves—has become so unforgiving that the republic is left with a significant roster of ineffectual, empty vessels whose ambition one would forgive if there were any genuine belief structure lurking within. 19. The caution in public life that we unwittingly encourage is corrosive. Those who say nothing wrong often say nothing much at all. 20. The pervasive intolerance of religious belief in certain circles must be resisted. The elite’s intolerance of religious belief is perhaps one of the most telling signs that its political project constitutes a less open intellectual movement than many within it would claim. 21. Some cultures have produced vital advances; others remain dysfunctional and regressive. All cultures are now equal. Criticism and value judgments are forbidden. Yet this new dogma glosses over the fact that certain cultures and indeed subcultures . . . have produced wonders. Others have proven middling, and worse, regressive and harmful. 22. We must resist the shallow temptation of a vacant and hollow pluralism. We, in America and more broadly the West, have for the past half century resisted defining national cultures in the name of inclusivity. But inclusion into what? Excerpts from the #1 New York Times Bestseller The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West, by Alexander C. Karp & Nicholas W. Zamiska techrepublicbook.com
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. 5. The question is not whether A.I. weapons will be built; it is who will build them and for what purpose. Our adversaries will not pause to indulge in theatrical debates about the merits of developing technologies with critical military and national security applications. They will proceed. 6. National service should be a universal duty. We should, as a society, seriously consider moving away from an all-volunteer force and only fight the next war if everyone shares in the risk and the cost. 7. If a U.S. Marine asks for a better rifle, we should build it; and the same goes for software. We should as a country be capable of continuing a debate about the appropriateness of military action abroad while remaining unflinching in our commitment to those we have asked to step into harm’s way. 8. Public servants need not be our priests. Any business that compensated its employees in the way that the federal government compensates public servants would struggle to survive. 9. We should show far more grace towards those who have subjected themselves to public life. The eradication of any space for forgiveness—a jettisoning of any tolerance for the complexities and contradictions of the human psyche—may leave us with a cast of characters at the helm we will grow to regret. 10. The psychologization of modern politics is leading us astray. Those who look to the political arena to nourish their soul and sense of self, who rely too heavily on their internal life finding expression in people they may never meet, will be left disappointed. 11. Our society has grown too eager to hasten, and is often gleeful at, the demise of its enemies. The vanquishing of an opponent is a moment to pause, not rejoice. 12. The atomic age is ending. One age of deterrence, the atomic age, is ending, and a new era of deterrence built on A.I. is set to begin. 13. No other country in the history of the world has advanced progressive values more than this one. The United States is far from perfect. But it is easy to forget how much more opportunity exists in this country for those who are not hereditary elites than in any other nation on the planet. 14. American power has made possible an extraordinarily long peace. Too many have forgotten or perhaps take for granted that nearly a century of some version of peace has prevailed in the world without a great power military conflict. At least three generations — billions of people and their children and now grandchildren — have never known a world war. 15. The postwar neutering of Germany and Japan must be undone. The defanging of Germany was an overcorrection for which Europe is now paying a heavy price. A similar and highly theatrical commitment to Japanese pacifism will, if maintained, also threaten to shift the balance of power in Asia. 16. We should applaud those who attempt to build where the market has failed to act. The culture almost snickers at Musk’s interest in grand narrative, as if billionaires ought to simply stay in their lane of enriching themselves . . . . Any curiosity or genuine interest in the value of what he has created is essentially dismissed, or perhaps lurks from beneath a thinly veiled scorn. 17. Silicon Valley must play a role in addressing violent crime. Many politicians across the United States have essentially shrugged when it comes to violent crime, abandoning any serious efforts to address the problem or take on any risk with their constituencies or donors in coming up with solutions and experiments in what should be a desperate bid to save lives. 18. The ruthless exposure of the private lives of public figures drives far too much talent away from government service. The public arena—and the shallow and petty assaults against those who dare to do something other than enrich themselves—has become so unforgiving that the republic is left with a significant roster of ineffectual, empty vessels whose ambition one would forgive if there were any genuine belief structure lurking within. 19. The caution in public life that we unwittingly encourage is corrosive. Those who say nothing wrong often say nothing much at all. 20. The pervasive intolerance of religious belief in certain circles must be resisted. The elite’s intolerance of religious belief is perhaps one of the most telling signs that its political project constitutes a less open intellectual movement than many within it would claim. 21. Some cultures have produced vital advances; others remain dysfunctional and regressive. All cultures are now equal. Criticism and value judgments are forbidden. Yet this new dogma glosses over the fact that certain cultures and indeed subcultures . . . have produced wonders. Others have proven middling, and worse, regressive and harmful. 22. We must resist the shallow temptation of a vacant and hollow pluralism. We, in America and more broadly the West, have for the past half century resisted defining national cultures in the name of inclusivity. But inclusion into what? Excerpts from the #1 New York Times Bestseller The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West, by Alexander C. Karp & Nicholas W. Zamiska techrepublicbook.com
