SpaceX teams up with Thiel's Palantir, Anduril on American Golden Dome | Hacker News Reader

SpaceX teams up with Thiel's Palantir, Anduril on American Golden Dome

msn.com

44 pointsmuskdom59 comments

I guess it's not corruption if you do it out in the open?

How do you figure?

Musk bought his way into an unelected position with a great amount of power over government spending, and Thiel chose JD Vance as vice president. They are now using that influence to direct taxpayer money into the companies which they have major stakes in, in order to enrich themselves and their friends.

You can't just say the quiet part out loud like that!

Edit: On further reflection, it actually sounds rather banal when stated that way -- they just bought the election, so that they could increase their already-staggering fortunes.

Don’t hate the player…

I absolutely will hate the player because they’re the only ones fucking up the game. No one else is doing this shit. Mama mia!

Why not both? Both is good.

No money for Medicaid but plenty for a weapon system that will never be used. Got it.

This American defense industry revival soured pretty quickly with its weapons now poised to go to Russia instead of defending the free world.

I'm sorry a "golden dome" sounds like it going to be some sort of dirty act on an adult website .

The debris created by this system will come raining down on use, too. Much like a shower, if you will.

Exactly. I asked Trump, "What's the difference between a chickpea and a garbanzo bean?".

This is much better alternative compared to American defense just being captured by Lockheed Martin and Northrop forever.

Is it? Why is this set of companies going to be better than the old guard?

Honestly, given Musk's meddling with starlink access in Ukraine, I'm hesitant to give him control over hypersonic missiles in orbit. I've never had a similar concern around Lockheed or Northrop.

I think the presumption is that Musk and the new guard are frugal and careful with money as seen by his passion for DOGE.

But, as also seen with DOGE, they’re careless and refuse to do even cursory research on anything beyond the first-order effects of their actions which, to me at least, seems like a terrible set of traits for being in charge of weaponry.

Musk behaved the EXACT same way when he took over Twitter and wanted to move out of one of the 3 main data centers they used. Actual experts told him it would take a year so he instead impulsively hires basic movers to rip the servers out and was surprised at how many things this broke. He said "I didn't realize how many places that data center was hardcoded". Except people absolutely told him that.

But DOGE is a sham that's more interested in disrupting the government than frugality.

Sarcasm doesn't translate well to online comments. See also: Poe's law.

Only gullible people actually think that. Musk is using DOGE to settle scores and shut down agencies investigating him or regulating his companies or ones he doesn't like.

Thank you for plainly stating the obvious!

It's exhausting repudiating the "good faith arguments" online.

The simple explanation is correct: he's mean, petty, insecure, and greedy, and is using this opportunity to "get even" and "get even richer".

Everything Musk has done in the past few years has proven he is not to be believed or trusted in any way.

He is a destructive moron. He is the gremlin on the wing of the plane. Between Tesla, Twitter, and now the Federal Government he might have fired more people than anyone else in history.

> He is the gremlin on the wing of the plane

This is the scene I keep coming back to! Can you imagine having actually gotten into a space ship bound for Mars with this guy [0] ? He'd be whining that the trip was taking too long, complaining that the ship must be too heavy, and trying to drill speed holes in the hull.

[0] (as we envisioned back when we thought this guy might actually put his own skin in the game like that, before his tragic spiral into social media and ketamine addictions)

I don’t think he’s particularly frugal. How much money did he blow buying his favorite social network again?

DOGE (and Twitter) are examples of a modern American business management affliction: if you can’t think of anything to create, the next best thing is to start tearing other things down in the name of “efficiency”. Reap the short term benefits and then get out before it collapses.

Imagine President Harris saying "we need the system activated, Putin is threatening us" and the Ketamine-Head deciding otherwise...

Different incentives. Lockheed and Northrop make their big bucks on “cost-plus” contracts, which is a euphemism for “paying the company to fail”. SpaceX and Anduril avoid that type of contract

The outcome will be the same, just the benefactor will change.

Doesn't seem to be. SpaceX is issuing direct threats to civil servants:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/faa-worker...

It's grubby.

Paywall: https://archive.ph/DSymz/

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