I feel like I'm living in Rome and the Proletarian guard is visiting every house to find teenage boys (and now girls and the other genders) to "serve their country". I'm hiding my military age children in the mountains and buying bullets along with BTC, gold, silver, and oil contracts.
Not one of your more uplifting, market focused articles, but nonetheless accurate. Invest accordingly!
Incidentally, despite the US/Iran war, Palantir stock didn't do that good in 2026. It went down during the whole spring and only get back up in summer to it's all time high from Oct. 2025 a few days ago.
Lau, as always, your perspective is appreciated. Of course the manifesto also supports Palantir's bottom line, as is to be expected. I've read Karp's The Technological Republic, with one of his fellow C-Suiters, and The Philosopher in the Valley, about Karp, both of which I think are significant books. I think Karp is sincere and not just a war monger wanting his company to get ever more powerful, but no doubt like most if not all powerful people, enthusiasm can become mania, and he, like Musk, and even Thiel, has a fair share of peculiar traits. I think we live in a very dangerous world and have moved from being an optimistic globalist and sort of bleeding heart liberal idealist to being much more of what I now consider to be a realist. I was always conservative/liberal in the more classic sense, but that's a separate discussion. In any event, I'm glad we have Palantir so actively engaged in developing and promoting our military defenses. No doubt I'm prejudiced by how successful the company has been as a stock investment for me. Maybe the wreck is already upon us and there's no use in arming ourselves against cyber and biological and drone and asymmetrical warfare on all sides. But I'm for trying to defend ourselves and stabilize the world in general. I fought to achieve conscientious objector status during the VietNam War, and world again if I were draft age, and I'm against our foreign aggression with Israel, although Israel and the entire Middle East and much of Africa and on and on are in the midst of a live nightmare that I don't see any way out of, but we need to try to stop it rather than further inflame all belligerents. So, Lau, as inarticulate as my hurried response is here, still I hope it will merit some further commentary and context from you. Thanks for continuing to inform us based on your "on the ground" experiences and research. Have a great weekend.
"And who, on occasion, doesn’t want to go rah-rah-America and project power around the world?"
Me. I'm more than sick of this 'America is the greatest place in the world' nonsense. And, I think the majority of Americans feel the same.
The problem for the past 40 years is that we've so often thought America is great, but we haven't done the things required to make it so. Quite the contrary: We have projected power, but I can't think of a single example where projecting restraint wouldn't have been the better course.
I was at a Frazer Institute luncheon honoring Milton and Rose Freidman's 93rd birthday and one of the questions asked of him was what he considered his proudest achievement. He replied that when he convinced Richard Nixon to eliminate the draft. I know US Marines who served in Vietnam and though proud Marines, they had no use for those that were in command in the White House. The US conscripts sent to Vietnam were Americas last slaves in my opinion.
Over the years, I have changed my mind on foreign entanglements and am now back in the libertarian isolationist and neutrality camp affording maximum individual sovereignty over all decisions now increasingly outsourced to the leviathan state, including of course, free trade. As a Canadian, I don't even trust the state to take the "correct" side of global conflicts, if they exist at all.
The bankrupt welfare / warfare state that is the US today could defend itself and deter potential enemies at a small fraction of the current military and foreign affairs / deep state / military Industrial complex budget, if anyone actually knows what that might be. Iran is likely the equivalent of the Suez crisis which confirmed the end of British empire decline. The hypersonic missiles fired over top of the US carrier group was very likely a warning from China or Russia that times have changed. Taking out a US Carrier group was likely considered a potential trigger to the White House being convinced to go nuclear. If the lunatics in charge of the EU and UK get their way and go to war with Russia, they (Russia) may just have to use the nuclear option. By standards of insanity, the Cuban Missile crises was a piece of cake compared to today's uncertainty.
The difference between now and the Cuban Missile Crisis is that the American public had its eye on the ball then enough to be afraid. The Kennedy administration knew what the mood was. Now, besides having psychopaths in power, the public is so mesmerized by consumerism, media crap, fantasy football, and on and on, that it does not give feedback.
Lau, the stuff on Palantir is interesting and informative. The claims that Netanyahu convinced Trump to attack Iran is not. The presentation of multiple reasons given for attacking Iran as contradictory is not (all the reasons you list are additive and complementary) and the emphasis on inadvertent civilian injuries in Gaza vs intentional and targeted civilian injuries in Israel is not. In short, I’m hoping you aren’t warming up for the same antisemitic nonsense that caused me to dump your previous employer’s newsletter.
Sorry to jump in, but did you actually say that criticizing Israel in the context of one of the most idiotic wars in decades is antisemitism? That's not a good position to take, and it will backfire.
I feel like I'm living in Rome and the Proletarian guard is visiting every house to find teenage boys (and now girls and the other genders) to "serve their country". I'm hiding my military age children in the mountains and buying bullets along with BTC, gold, silver, and oil contracts.
Not one of your more uplifting, market focused articles, but nonetheless accurate. Invest accordingly!
Incidentally, despite the US/Iran war, Palantir stock didn't do that good in 2026. It went down during the whole spring and only get back up in summer to it's all time high from Oct. 2025 a few days ago.
But it is still 2000% up since winter 2024 !
Lau, as always, your perspective is appreciated. Of course the manifesto also supports Palantir's bottom line, as is to be expected. I've read Karp's The Technological Republic, with one of his fellow C-Suiters, and The Philosopher in the Valley, about Karp, both of which I think are significant books. I think Karp is sincere and not just a war monger wanting his company to get ever more powerful, but no doubt like most if not all powerful people, enthusiasm can become mania, and he, like Musk, and even Thiel, has a fair share of peculiar traits. I think we live in a very dangerous world and have moved from being an optimistic globalist and sort of bleeding heart liberal idealist to being much more of what I now consider to be a realist. I was always conservative/liberal in the more classic sense, but that's a separate discussion. In any event, I'm glad we have Palantir so actively engaged in developing and promoting our military defenses. No doubt I'm prejudiced by how successful the company has been as a stock investment for me. Maybe the wreck is already upon us and there's no use in arming ourselves against cyber and biological and drone and asymmetrical warfare on all sides. But I'm for trying to defend ourselves and stabilize the world in general. I fought to achieve conscientious objector status during the VietNam War, and world again if I were draft age, and I'm against our foreign aggression with Israel, although Israel and the entire Middle East and much of Africa and on and on are in the midst of a live nightmare that I don't see any way out of, but we need to try to stop it rather than further inflame all belligerents. So, Lau, as inarticulate as my hurried response is here, still I hope it will merit some further commentary and context from you. Thanks for continuing to inform us based on your "on the ground" experiences and research. Have a great weekend.
"And who, on occasion, doesn’t want to go rah-rah-America and project power around the world?"
Me. I'm more than sick of this 'America is the greatest place in the world' nonsense. And, I think the majority of Americans feel the same.
The problem for the past 40 years is that we've so often thought America is great, but we haven't done the things required to make it so. Quite the contrary: We have projected power, but I can't think of a single example where projecting restraint wouldn't have been the better course.
I was at a Frazer Institute luncheon honoring Milton and Rose Freidman's 93rd birthday and one of the questions asked of him was what he considered his proudest achievement. He replied that when he convinced Richard Nixon to eliminate the draft. I know US Marines who served in Vietnam and though proud Marines, they had no use for those that were in command in the White House. The US conscripts sent to Vietnam were Americas last slaves in my opinion.
Over the years, I have changed my mind on foreign entanglements and am now back in the libertarian isolationist and neutrality camp affording maximum individual sovereignty over all decisions now increasingly outsourced to the leviathan state, including of course, free trade. As a Canadian, I don't even trust the state to take the "correct" side of global conflicts, if they exist at all.
The bankrupt welfare / warfare state that is the US today could defend itself and deter potential enemies at a small fraction of the current military and foreign affairs / deep state / military Industrial complex budget, if anyone actually knows what that might be. Iran is likely the equivalent of the Suez crisis which confirmed the end of British empire decline. The hypersonic missiles fired over top of the US carrier group was very likely a warning from China or Russia that times have changed. Taking out a US Carrier group was likely considered a potential trigger to the White House being convinced to go nuclear. If the lunatics in charge of the EU and UK get their way and go to war with Russia, they (Russia) may just have to use the nuclear option. By standards of insanity, the Cuban Missile crises was a piece of cake compared to today's uncertainty.
The difference between now and the Cuban Missile Crisis is that the American public had its eye on the ball then enough to be afraid. The Kennedy administration knew what the mood was. Now, besides having psychopaths in power, the public is so mesmerized by consumerism, media crap, fantasy football, and on and on, that it does not give feedback.
Lau, the stuff on Palantir is interesting and informative. The claims that Netanyahu convinced Trump to attack Iran is not. The presentation of multiple reasons given for attacking Iran as contradictory is not (all the reasons you list are additive and complementary) and the emphasis on inadvertent civilian injuries in Gaza vs intentional and targeted civilian injuries in Israel is not. In short, I’m hoping you aren’t warming up for the same antisemitic nonsense that caused me to dump your previous employer’s newsletter.
Sorry to jump in, but did you actually say that criticizing Israel in the context of one of the most idiotic wars in decades is antisemitism? That's not a good position to take, and it will backfire.
I read it that way, too.
I welcome either of you to identify which parts of my post are either untrue or preclude any form of vertical criticism of Israel.
No that’s not what I actually said and the truth isn’t prone to backfiring.