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Palantir, Meta, OpenAI Execs Appointed Lieutenant Colonels in US Army (2025)
- LunaSea 8mo agoMaybe they can also get FIFA Peace prizes next?
- leosanchez 8mo agoThey should get UEFA peace prize to temporarily get off Greenland.
- timacles 8mo agoSMHing my head at my country right now. What have we become.
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- leosanchez 8mo agoSMH? Shaking my head my head ?
- buellerbueller 8mo agoShaking my heading my head.
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- agumonkey 8mo agoAnd as usual the USA fell better and faster than his peers
- cookszn 8mo agoIf you looked it up, it’s been the same since manhattan project. They don’t give orders but rather are “advisors/consultants” - prevents wasting billions. Or you can just SMH yourself out the country.
- buellerbueller 8mo agoOld (2025), but TOTALLY not fascism at all. For more context: https://www.npr.org/2025/07/03/1255164460/1a-army-07-03-2025 https://www.npr.org/2025/07/03/1255164460/1a-army-07-03-2025 So, we have a sitting US Senator/astronaut/Navy Vet who is being harassed by the "Secretary" of Defense for making a video telling troop that they can (and must) refuse unconstitutional orders. This tells us a bit about how the administration and DoD view the constitution versus chain-of-command. Thusly, I can only assume that these "Lieutenant Colonels" are there to be ordered to do things which they cannot refuse if constitutional, and will still be expected to do if unconstitutional. Totes not fascism.
- aaronbrethorst 8mo agoSecretary of “War”
- buellerbueller 8mo agoTrump can't change the name of the Department, only the letterhead. Congress would have to change the name. There is no Secretary of War in the USA.
- rl1987 8mo agoIt got to the point that now there is a "SSecretary" of War.
- chrisjj 8mo agoComplete with costumes! My ...
- sixhobbits 8mo ago(June 2025)
- AndrewThrowaway 8mo agoIt looks like I am sharing all of my data with US Army!
- leosanchez 8mo agoAlmost everyone in the world is doing that except maybe China and some other countries.
- buellerbueller 8mo agoIt is wrong when they do it too.
- gruturo 8mo agoThis is nothing new. The Army has been doing this forever. A certain General Failure was reading my C: drive all the way back in the 80s. I'll show myself out..
- Arun2009 8mo agoThis is news from June 14, 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detachment_201 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detachment_201 https://www.army.mil/article/286317/army_launches_detachment_201_executive_innovation_corps_to_drive_tech_transformation https://www.army.mil/article/286317/army_launches_detachment...
- Drunkfoowl 8mo ago[dead]
- fudged71 8mo agoThe tech industry is falling in line just as expected. Disgraceful. Don't take orders from a LtCol with zero military experience.
- tibbydudeza 8mo agoI thought CCCP deploying PLA soldiers at Chinese tech companies was a problem. I guess the US is trying the fascist approach to things now :).
- jsksdkldld 8mo ago[dead]
- beauzero 8mo agoFor context. This is how it was done during the Manhattan Project. https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-project-history/People/MilitaryOrgs/sed.html https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-project-history/Peopl...
- rawgabbit 8mo agoThe article you cited said it was done during wartime. It was a way to keep the scientists and technicians who were drafted into military service... so they can keep working in the laboratories they are already working in. As a solution, the Manhattan Engineer District (MED) in May secured authorization to establish the Special Engineering Detachment (SED) to which technical and scientific personnel could be assigned upon being drafted
- Teever 8mo agoThis was also why Werhner Von Braun was made an officer in the SS.
- Wojtkie 8mo agoDoes this mean the execs are now also under the UCMJ?
- stoneman24 8mo agoI wonder if the executives have realised this
- ceejayoz 8mo agoTheir legal teams will most certainly have been involved.
- SilverElfin 8mo agoOld news but worth revisiting. There has been and continues to be open corruption in the Trump administration. If you donate to them and support their political positions blindingly, you get contracts or regulatory help or maybe a lack of regulatory trouble. A good example is Jensen Huang donating to the ballroom project and Nvidia’s Groq acquisition not being blocked for antitrust. But you see this with many other leaders too. The All In podcast is basically a MAGA podcast now. Many VCs are silent about current events as they hope their portfolio companies get defense contracts.
- macrocyclo 8mo agoDid this mean less Russian propaganda bots or more American propaganda bots?
- mothballed 8mo agoWhy does the army tuck their pants into their boots like that? Do they like wicking and trapping moisture into their shoes?
- mistrial9 8mo agohorse riding magazine, someone liked the look?
- jMyles 8mo agoI'm normally very reluctant to cheer most comparisons us the US political situation to nazi germany, or to fascism in general. But events like this (and the Intel stake) seem like an exact implementation of what has come to be called The Third Position[0], which, if I understand correctly, was the etymology of the world 'fascism' itself. Mussolini's 1913 Fasci d'Azione Rivoluzionaria was apparently named after 'fasci', or corporate syndicates, his vision of which is basically exactly what we're seeing here: the state owning stakes in the means of technocratic production, and corporate leaders in positions of military command. And although "The Third Position" is usually called a _neo_-fascist movement, I believe that Mussolini articulated it, more or less in its entirety, some time in the early 1920s? I'm more of a political scientist than a historian, so it's possible I have this wrong. 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Position https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Position
- dismalaf 8mo agoThe comments here are hilarious. Every competent military in the world has DCO programs... Otherwise they'd never be able to attract talent for specialised fields.
- gordonhart 8mo agoWay too easy to stir the pot here. Dig up some plausibly tech-themed political news from a few months ago, post, and watch the piranhas start nipping at it.
- ChrisArchitect 8mo ago(2025) Discussion then: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44268547 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44268547
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- robbbed 8mo agoThis seems fine. The question is will these execs still have ties to the tech companies they're supposedly leaving.
- burnt-resistor 8mo agoAll that is left on my bingo card is for them to outright invent a religious cult (they're already a cult of a different sort) to both get tax exempt status and actually zealously believe in it too.