Thoughts for the Day, December 4, 2025: My car predicts where I am going. Have we gone to far?

What are they doing with our information?

Twenty years ago, I read a book titled Applebee’s America which forecasted the upcoming information age when corporations would gather so much information about individuals through the internet, social media, personal telephones, credit cards, etc, companies would not only track your purchasing habits, they would be able to predict your future needs and target market specific products to your social media accounts, phones, laptops and tablets.

That time has come and we are at a crossroads as to what do with it. It is for this reason that I want to share the following article by Robert Reich, the former Secretary of Labor, professor, and political commentator.

The most dangerous corporation in America is one you may not have heard of. It’s called Palantir Technologies, a Silicon Valley tech company that may put your most basic freedoms at risk.

Palantir gets its name from a device used in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, in which a “palantir” is a seeing stone — something like a crystal ball — that can be used to spy on people and distort the truth. During the War of the Ring, a palantir falls under the control of the evil Sauron, who uses it to manipulate and deceive.

Palantir — co-founded by far-right billionaire Peter Thiel and its current CEO Alex Karp — bears a striking similarity. It sells AI-based data platforms that let their clients, including governments, militaries, and law enforcement agencies, quickly process and analyze massive amounts of your personal data.

Whether it’s social media profiles, bank account records, tax history, medical history, or driving records, the tools that Palantir sells are used to help clients identify and monitor individuals — like you.

Why should this matter to you? Billions of your tax dollars are going to Palantir, and what Palantir is working on could be used against you.

As Palantir’s Karp says: “Palantir is here to disrupt and make the institutions we partner with the very best in the world and, when it’s necessary, to scare enemies and on occasion kill them.”

Early in his current term, Trump signed an executive order requiring government agencies to consolidate all of their information about you into one giant database — something that has never been done before. To help process this massive amount of information, Trump chose Palantir.

Trump claims this is about “efficiency.” But as one Silicon Valley investor described it, Palantir is “building the infrastructure of the police state.”

Data privacy experts warn that when government data is pooled together, it can be used by a tyrant to intimidate or silence opposition. The possibilities for abuse are huge. One of Palantir’s major projects is a new immigrant surveillance system for ICE’s deportations.

We’ve already seen Trump target people or organizations he considers enemies. Imagine if he could punish or deny services to individual Americans based on their political affiliation, whether they’ve attended a protest, or even posted an unflattering picture of him online.Palantir could be giving Trump the power to do just this.

Palantir co-founder and Trump ally Peter Thiel has made no secret of his disdain for democracy, writing “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.” But when he speaks of “freedom,” he isn’t thinking about you. To Thiel, “freedom” means that he and his fellow tech oligarchs get to do what they want, without consequences, while the rest of us live in an authoritarian police state.

It’s a match made in Mordor — Trump gets the infrastructure to go after his enemies. Thiel gets to end American democracy. The danger of Palantir’s AI-powered super database on all Americans is amplified by the vast wealth and power of those associated with it, and their apparent disdain for democratic institutions.

To protect democracy and our individual freedoms, we need to elect leaders who will defend the public from corporations like Palantir — not partner with them.

If you do not believe this is happening, then explain why when I get into my car on Friday at 5:30 pm, it knows that I am going to The Side Door for dinner, or when I stop at the rest area in West Branch heading north on I75, my car gives me directions to my home in Petoskey.

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Transparency is getting worse.

Governor Witmer and the Michigan legislature are not the only ones unwilling to disclose financial information, including donors and financial relationships with those the county does business. The Oakland County Commissioners are following in the Whitmer’s footsteps.

Per the Detroit Free Press. Oakland County commissioners peeled back an ethics proposal this week, stripping out a portion that mandated commissioners and countywide elected officials disclose financial information intended to build public trust and prevent conflicts of interest.

The proposed measure now states it is “strongly encouraged” for county officials to disclose some financial information. But it also pushed back implementing the system as far as 2028 and removed disclosures championed by Oakland County Executive Dave Coulter when he called for extensive ethics reforms earlier this year.

The Oakland County Commissioners get my Onion of the Day

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Hegseth has got to go

I am not the only one who feels this way.

Per the Washington Post. The inspector general’s report on the Signalgate affair details a situation much more complex than Hegseth’s claims suggest. It notes, for instance, that the defense secretary pulled sensitive information about a future military operation from a classified message that was sent through secure channels by a top general and labeled “SECRET/NOFORN,” a detail first reported by the Washington Post in July.. Such a designation means the contents were classified at a level at which unauthorized disclosure could be expected to cause serious damage to national security and was not meant for anyone who is a foreign national, including close allies of the United States.

Former top military officials and other national security experts have argued since the scandal surfaced earlier this year that such handling of highly sensitive information almost certainly put American lives at risk — a point the inspector general’s team emphasized in its findings.

Per Heather Cox Richardson, The news of last Friday, November 28, that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told a Joint Special Operations commander overseeing an attack on a small vessel carrying 11 people on September 2 to “kill everybody” is shaping up to be a fight over control of the United States government.

A missile strike shattered the boat and set it afire, but two men survived. A second strike fulfilled Hegseth’s order. According to Alex Horton and Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post, the commander, Admiral Frank “Mitch” Bradley, said “the survivors were still legitimate targets because they could theoretically call other traffickers to retrieve them and their cargo.” In a report, the Joint Special Operations Command said the second strike was not to kill survivors, but to remove a navigation hazard.

There had already been significant pushback in the first place over the strikes, which legal experts say are unlawful. But the so-called double tap is illegal and a war crime even under the Trump administration’s flimsy justification for the strikes.

Lawmakers of both parties have pushed back on what Senator Angus King (I-ME) yesterday called “a stone cold war crime.” The Republican chairs of the House and Senate Armed Services committees, Representative Mike Rogers (R-AL) and Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS), have vowed to launch investigations of the incident, as well as of the larger operation.

Mike Rogers, no one’s idea of a Biden nostalgist, found himself openly irritated. Rogers reportedly told Pentagon officials, in a line that should be chiseled into the wall of this era: “We got more information out of the Pentagon under the Biden administration than we’re getting out of you now.”

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Quote of the Day: I love this comment from the blog of Mary Gendry. “When an administration begins meme-ifying murder… it’s not just the law that collapses, it’s public conscience…. cruelty can be normalized far faster than decency can be rebuilt, and the age of “gangster governance”, Trump, Putin, Netanyahu, the whole gallery of strongmen, is united not by ideology but by a shared conviction that human life is disposable and accountability is optional.” This is my Quote of the Day

Orchid of the Day: Pentatonix performance at the Little Ceasar’s Arena on Wednesday night. They had people of all ages from young kids to 80-year-olds standing, clapping and singing for most of the night. Their nearly 2-hour performance of mostly Christmas songs was outstanding.

Onion of the Day: Oakland County commissioners. See above story.

Question of Day: How embarrassing does Hegseth have to get before Trump dumps him?

Lyrics of the Day: I got no kick against the West Coast
Warner Brothers are such good hosts
I raise my whiskey glass and give ‘em a toast
I’m sure they know it’s true

I got no rap against the Southern States
Every time I’ve been there, it’s been great
But now I’m leaving and I can’t be late
And to myself be true

If you think you know the answer, post your response in the comment section of the blog.

Lyrics of the Day for December 2, 2025. Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen

Video of the Day: My favorite Christmas Video.

Bing Crosby, David Bowie - Peace On Earth / Little Drummer Boy

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