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posted by on Tuesday December 13 2016, @06:46PM   Printer-friendly
from the choose-to-recuse dept.

Caesar's wife must be above suspicion, but Trump's transition team and ultimately cabinet, seems rife with conflicts of ignorance. The Intercept reports that:

Palantir Technologies, the data mining company co-founded by billionaire and Trump transition advisor Peter Thiel, will likely assist the Trump Administration in its efforts to track and collect intelligence on immigrants, according to a review of public records by The Intercept. Since 2011, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency's Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) has paid Palantir tens of millions of dollars to help construct and operate a complex intelligence system called FALCON, which allows ICE to store, search, and analyze troves of data that include family relationships, employment information, immigration history, criminal records, and home and work addresses.

I guess this is what happens when you elect a businessman to political office: they run it like a business.

Working closely with a President-elect who has pledged to dramatically expand ICE, Thiel's varied connections to the immigration agency place him in a position to potentially benefit financially from a deportation campaign that carries highly personal stakes for millions of Americans.

They always say: you have nothing to worry about, if you have nothing to hide.

Palantir, which is backed by the CIA's venture capital arm, did not respond to a request for comment regarding its ICE contracts and concerns over potential conflicts of interest. Peter Thiel spokesperson Jeremiah Hall declined to comment on a list of emailed queries, including a question asking whether Thiel has yet signed the Trump transition ethics agreement.


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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by jmorris on Tuesday December 13 2016, @10:38PM

    by jmorris (4844) on Tuesday December 13 2016, @10:38PM (#441047)

    Law enforcement works with private contractors on a daily basis. So the reason to reject this one is? If it were half as Evil as the usual suspects claim, explain why your beloved Halfrican lightbringer is currently using their services? Why do I suspect the shock and horror is the fear it might work?

    The myth that drives both Progressive and cucked Republican is that illegals can't be stopped and trying will simply enrage the Hispanic vote. Trump already proved one of those to be a myth by getting a similar share of the Hispanic vote to cucked Republicans. Proving the other part a myth should be equally simple, build the wall and enforce the laws and the problem will quickly resolve.

    As for the long term disturbing implications of mass database building, I worry about it from not just the government but Google, Facebook, Amazon, VISA, etc. But the problem nobody wants to discuss regards the government doing it is simple enough. Either we rebuild a high trust society where the need simply isn't there to allow government to rationalize mass snooping or we continue to have a low trust one where it is the only way to maintain even the semblance of order. Pick one. And if you don't want a low trust police state be prepared to reconsider the policy positions pushed into your mind by people who do.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 14 2016, @12:00AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 14 2016, @12:00AM (#441084)

    The myth that drives both Progressive and cucked Republican is that illegals can't be stopped and trying will simply enrage the Hispanic vote.

    The problem I have with the plan is deportation will cost billions and create a human rights crisis. People like me would rather they build the wall, better secure the border, and give the illegals an ultimatum: Prove you have a job and residence by a cut off date, and we'll give you a temporary work visa for x years and you must file taxes. If you refuse to register by the cut off date and caught, you will be deported and permanently barred from reentry, visa applications, etc (meaning, you're never setting foot here legally again). If you have a child citizen above age 5 (or what ever age is young enough to not inflict the trauma of deportation from the USA to a shit hole) you will be granted stay provided you register. Parents of said child can also opt to grant custody to a suitable *citizen* family member. After the temporary work visa expires after x years, they must return to their country of origin or face deportation. They may apply for another visa within that period but depending on immigration quotas, they may be denied.

    This way we save money by not having to pay for millions of illegals to be deported and force them to pay taxes. And just so you know, we have over half a million illegal Chinese. Plane tickets to China are costly. So that saves us a shit load of cash up front. We also save by not having to hire more border patrol agents who after they costly hunt, exhausting the supply of illegals, will be dead weight. We put the money where it's needed right away: border security. Beef that fucker up, build a wall, hell build two walls. Hire more border agents and give them more hardware to detect illegal crossings. And in the end, we spare millions the humiliating, degrading process of shipping them back to where ever they came from. Besides, it's not like people will be lining up for their jobs to begin with. The employment vacuum alone will be an economic shock to the system after employers are faced with properly paying citizens who will protest for higher wages instead of fucking over illegals and threatening to call INS when they complain.

    • (Score: 2, Interesting) by jmorris on Wednesday December 14 2016, @02:02AM

      by jmorris (4844) on Wednesday December 14 2016, @02:02AM (#441122)

      Everything you say is the popular wisdom, carefully maintained by the mass media. Too bad it is all false. Either simply factually incorrect or based on a bad premise.

      The problem I have with the plan is deportation will cost billions and create a human rights crisis.

      Questions that will guide you to the Truth:

      1. How much did it cost to import them? Why will it cost more to 'encourage' them to leave the same way they came?

      2. Why will enforcing our laws create a 'human rights crisis'? If they all fled at once, in a wild dash to the border, it might cause one but we would have to be really stupid to do cause that. Over a period of a year or so we simply enforce our laws, drying up the opportunity to find employment, crack down on enforcing existing laws forbidding public assistance to illegals, move legislation clarifying the non-existence of birthright citizenship, etc.

      3. Assuming for argument it does cost 'billions'. Compute the current cost of having them remain and compare. Be sure you include the crime, unemployment and welfare for Americans currently being paid not to take those jobs, add in the lifetime cost of the welfare state benefits the majority consume now and will continue to consume all the way to natural death. Very few illegals are revenue positive in the sense of paying more in taxes than benefits received. Be sure to include costs to educate their children, etc. Now you can answer the question: Do illegals benefit the United States, net all considerations?

      If you have a child citizen above age 5 (or what ever age is young enough to not inflict the trauma of deportation from the USA to a shit hole) you will be granted stay provided you register.

      4. Why are you encouraging 'anchor babies'? Don't try that 'for the children' stunt on me, ain't buying it. If thee or me breaks American laws they sure as Hell won't accept the argument that imposing the prison sentence on us would be 'bad for our children.' Nope, they grow up in foster care and become gang bangers and hookers. If the kid is the product of two Mexicans the kid is a citizen of Mexico, what can possibly be wrong about returning them home as an intact family. If American + Mexican, let the parents work it out... should have got married and solved the citizenship problem, right?

      And just so you know, we have over half a million illegal Chinese. Plane tickets to China are costly.

      Not really, especially when whole planes can be chartered. The U.S. Government owns a few serviceable airplanes if it comes to it. Contrast to the ongoing expense of keeping them, see above. Illegals rarely pay net taxes. Excluding a few who overstay work visas, etc. Don't make policy decisions based on the exceptions.

      The employment vacuum alone will be an economic shock to the system after employers are faced with properly paying citizens

      You say that like it is a bad thing. The country pays now, in the form of lawlessness and welfare. We could minimize the shocks if we also cut or eliminated the minimum wage. Where is it graven on stones that every job must pay a 'living wage', however such a fuzzy term is defined. We are paying most of the people who would be taking 'the jobs Americans won't do' already to sit on their plush asses. So continue to pay em the difference, especially if done as a temporary measure to minimize the dislocations of restoring sanity to the system. So when they relocate out of the urban hells to take jobs picking produce for $5/hr Uncle Sugar keeps paying them enough they can live. Longterm those jobs shouldn't pay a 'living wage' with or without the government teat. They should be the sort of jobs where single men with few options share quarters to survive on the meager pay while earn some money to get established and find better jobs. And most of those jobs will be automated soon anyway, so there is that.

      • (Score: 0, Insightful) by aristarchus on Wednesday December 14 2016, @03:15AM

        by aristarchus (2645) on Wednesday December 14 2016, @03:15AM (#441150) Journal

        Questions that will guide you to the Truth:

        From jmorris? Ha. Ha! Hahahahaha! MuHahaahahaha!!!! You're killing us, jmorris! Please stop!

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 14 2016, @04:44AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 14 2016, @04:44AM (#441177)

          When someone invites you into their own personal insanity, the proper response is to politely decline. You have hurt jmorris, in a place where he is the most vulnerable. Do not mock him, it is not his fault. I suggest you just pass on by, ignore his comments as all others do, and since he never submits articles, you will be fine and he can stay in his own private, fluffy, supportive, well-rounded, and inescapable bubble. Please consider this, the next time.

  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday December 14 2016, @12:12AM

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday December 14 2016, @12:12AM (#441094) Journal

    The plight of lawbreakers is an SJW cause. If you happen to be brown, speak Mexican, and break the law, SJW's are ready to defend you. Any action that threatens a Mexican speaking brown law breaker has to be wrong. Remember, in the SJW lexicon, "illegal" is a race.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 14 2016, @09:52PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 14 2016, @09:52PM (#441441)

      a Mexican speaking brown

      Says the 'Merican speaking hillbilly!

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 14 2016, @12:38AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 14 2016, @12:38AM (#441102)

    So really, why would a grown man-person who lives in the basement of his mother's home need 32 "Tickle-me-Elmo"s? You are very right to be afraid, jmorris. But back to the vibrating toys . . .

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 14 2016, @04:35AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 14 2016, @04:35AM (#441174)

    I have never pretended to be a Republican, and I'm against illegal immigration in spite of leaning "generally" (read:heavily) left. Having that been said, you really shoot yourself in the foot when you speak of "cucked Republicans."

    I mention this to you now because, while I don't agree with really much of anything you say, I want you to have ideas that aren't based upon insults to your primary demographic, and I like this being a nice place, free of insults where possible. I mean, you're shooting yourself in the foot here.