I wasn’t going to write a Sunday Salon post this week. But I found a couple of quick things that I wanted to share.

100 Hours of Science

For the last few days, I’ve been checking on the 100 hours of science programming to raise awareness about the importance of weather and climate research. They are asking us to contact Congress to let them know that we need funding for this research. This event has been so fun and informative. They are in hour 92 as I type this on Sunday morning, so only a few more hours left. I’m sad that I have to go somewhere this afternoon when it ends. I’m guessing that last hour will be a very satisfying celebration of 100 hours. Click the green Watch button on the Weather and Climate Livestream web page.

Information about our Government

Below, I will copy and paste a post from the Facebook page of Alt National Park Service (Here’s their Bluesky profile). It sounds like conspiracy theory and I hope that it is. But I’ve been following Alt National Park Service for eight years and conspiracy theory is not what they do. What they do is resist from within the government. One way they do that is to reveal secretive government actions and connect dots across government agencies.

According to Alt National Park Service, they are being attacked because of this and related reporting, including attempts to get the information off the internet. I’m sharing it here, because my little blog is less easily scrubbed than social media websites or news-reporting websites with businesses to protect.

Here is the post. I added some formatting to make it easier to read.

Peter Thiel’s company, Palantir, is helping the Trump administration build the very thing they claim to be fighting, a centralized surveillance state. And yes, it’s real. Big Brother is here.
Here’s how it works:

Step 1: Trump’s Executive Order
In March 2025, Trump signed an executive order forcing all federal agencies to share their data with each other. That includes the IRS, Department of Health, Education, Homeland Security, and more.
This order gutted past privacy protections and handed control of America’s data to a newly empowered agency called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), staffed almost entirely by Trump loyalists.

Step 2: DOGE as the Control Center
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) acts as the hub:
– It determines which data gets shared, by whom, and for what purpose.
– Staffed with Trump loyalists and political appointees, it answers only to the executive branch.
– DOGE contracts directly with Palantir, essentially privatizing surveillance infrastructure.
They’ve also embedded Palantir tech into agencies like IRS, DHS, VA, and HHS under the justification of “improving operations.”

Step 3: Palantir Is the Glue
Palantir, co-founded by far-right billionaire Peter Thiel, makes software designed to pull data from all kinds of sources and link it together. Their main platforms, Foundry, Gotham, and Apollo, are now used across the federal government.
They’ve built systems for:
– The IRS – to access and analyze tax returns, Social Security numbers, and employment records.
– ICE – to track immigrants and visa overstays.
– HHS and the VA – to manage health records, hospital data, and even vaccine planning.
– The military and intelligence agencies – to run surveillance and battlefield analysis tools.
Together, these tools don’t just store data, they connect it across agencies and create a full picture of any person the government wants to analyze.

Step 4: Everything Is Being Tied Together
DOGE is using Palantir’s tools to link:
– Your tax data
– Your medical records
– Your immigration status
– Your student loans
– Your bank transactions
– And more, all into one system.
Before this order, that kind of data sharing was either illegal or tightly restricted. Now it’s happening in the open, with no congressional oversight and no transparency.

Yes, It Can Be Weaponized

Trump has already:
– Fired independent watchdogs
– Installed loyalists in key data-heavy roles
– Publicly threatened to use the IRS and DOJ against political opponents

While there’s no public proof of real-time “surveillance dossiers” on individuals just yet, the tools now exist to build them, and the safeguards to prevent it are gone.
This mirrors authoritarian data governance models, but with American tech and less oversight.

Palantir has taken over $908 million in contracts since Trump returned to office (follow the money). Every system they’ve built is expanding the administration’s reach into your personal life. This isn’t about efficiency, it’s about control.

You never consented to this. No one voted for it. And unless we push back, it will only grow stronger.