It's back to weaponizing government to boost Clinton's chances

Peter Thiel, prominent billionaire venture capitalist and Trump supporter, has apparently been targeted by a federal agency under Barack Obama’s control.  We have become a banana republic.

As we head toward the election, there has been a spate of news items regarding frustration among Democrats that they have not been able to mobilize Asian-Americans.  Voter turnout has been lagging among members of this group.  Since the election is tightening, these votes can be crucial in tilting some states toward Hillary Clinton come November,.

What better way to mobilize these voters than to file charges against a high-profile company alleging discrimination against Asian-Americans?  The Silicon Valley-headquartered company in this instance is the highly regarded Palantir Technologies.  Palantir focuses on intelligence analysis and counter-terrorism research and is a cutting-edge company in terms of data number-crunching.

Bloomberg News reports that the risks for the company are very high.

Palantir Technologies Inc. discriminates against Asian job applicants in its hiring and selection process, the U.S. Department of Labor alleged in an administrative complaint.

Co-founded by billionaire Peter Thiel, the data analysis company is among the most highly vaunted of Silicon Valley startups, securing a $20 billion valuation last year, in part for its contracts with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Special Operations Command and the Army.

Lisa Gordon, a spokeswoman for Palantir, said the company will defend itself “vigorously” and denies allegations of bias. “The results of our hiring practices speak for themselves,” she wrote in an e-mail. “Despite repeated efforts to highlight these outcomes, the Department of Labor relies on a narrow and flawed statistical analysis relating to three job descriptions from 2010 to 2011.” The Labor Department had no immediate further comment.

At risk are future government contracts, company finances, recruiting problems, and a potential delaying of a much anticipated initial public offering.

This is fortuitous timing for Democrats.  The company, as noted in the Bloomberg story, was cofounded by Peter Thiel – the same Peter Thiel who is a prominent Trump supporter (a rare breed indeed in Silicon Valley) and the same Peter Thiel who spoke in support of Trump at the Republican National Convention.

Of all the companies Obama's Labor Department, headed by hyper-partisan activist Tom Perez, can choose to file suit against, the department chooses one founded and funded by a big Trump supporter.

I suppose the IRS is out of bounds now, given all the bad publicity.  The Justice Department is out of bounds because of the Hillary Clinton email scandal.

Since it is a green company, the feds can’t use the EPA to punish Thiel and send an intimidating message to all Trump supporters.  I can imagine that various cabinet departments were considered before choosing to use the Department of Labor against a Trump supporter with the added benefit of gaining support among Asian-Americans for Democrats and for one Democrat in particular, Hillary Clinton.