this post was submitted on 14 Sep 2023
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U.S. billionaire Elon Musk has agreed to sell a portion of Starlink assets to the U.S. Department of Defense, removing himself from decision-making regarding geofencing Ukraine’s access to the satellite internet service

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[–] [email protected] 196 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Fuck him, seize the company and nationalize it

[–] [email protected] 68 points 1 year ago (2 children)

In my opinion, all companies essential to national security should be nationalised. I mean the likes of Lockheed Martin as well. There should be no profit from war and we can't afford companies to chase profits against the interests of national security if we end up needing it.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (5 children)

How does it work in China?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Worked well enough for them to build 30-ish ghost cities the size of New York City, meanwhile we can't even get a single high speed rail built, anywhere in the country.

Regardless of the implications that might have on their economy all I can think is of the old proverb;

A kingdom that doesn't build doesn't remain a kingdom for long.

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[–] [email protected] 108 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Musk sure has a big fucking mouth. There most have been some sobering back door conversations for this to happen so quickly.

[–] [email protected] 77 points 1 year ago (4 children)

i'd love to hear what they threatened him with as this doesnt read like he had any choice

[–] [email protected] 57 points 1 year ago (1 children)

“Here is every illegal thing you’ve done since you were conceived, including the ones in countries that the US has an extradition agreement with. Also, here is how much we will pay you to be our bitch. Would you like to continue this discussion?”

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Would you like to continue this discussion?

Press X to continue.

Actually, let's not

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago

Probably all of his SpaceX and Tesla contracts.

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[–] [email protected] 106 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hahahaha forced is more like it. We just nationalized a portion of Starlink. Nice going Elon, you fucking troglodyte.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Don't laugh too hard. We are the ones paying the bill for it.

ie, Our taxes are now indirectly ended up directly in Elon's pocket. And, I can promise he didn't cut us a deal.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's a small price to pay if it results in saving Ukrainian lives by having it in more capable, less idiotic hands.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You never know. The threat of an extraordinary rendition to Ukraine might have kept the price down.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Did Starlink and SpaceX not already receive a lot of government funding for their rockets etc? You could argue that the taxpayers should own x% because they paid the bill for it...

[–] [email protected] 62 points 1 year ago

Now tax him and get the money back.

[–] [email protected] 55 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Noel Reports:

A British Journalist asked Elon Musk:

"Has your ignorance and ego cost Ukrainian lives? Putin calls you outstanding, how would you call Putin?"

Musk refused to comment.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

On a secure, private line twice a week?

[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 year ago

Somebody had some REAL uncomfortable conversations over the past 7 days, richest man in the world got threatened so hard knocked his dick in the dirt, ahahahahahahaha

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (1 children)

On the one hand, yay for nationalising utilities!

On the other, not under the already most bloated military in the world who can't even account for billions of their yearly funding ffs!!

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't think they lost billions as much as they pumped it into black projects.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I didn't say they lost them, I said they couldn't account for them: they were audited a bunch of times and failed by billions every time, probably for the reason you mentioned AND because they get so much money that they don't feel a need to make an effort to track it all

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There's no way muskrat can keep his mouth shut about this, surely?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago

Probably going to spin this as a win and something he initiated. He is unable to be weak or at fault for something.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

This is the way. Musk should never have had such responsibility. Then again, perhaps due to not being a government official, he got those things into Ukraine pretty fast (just 8 days after Russia started the invasion!), and they were successfully used in many places.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Agreed = forced. I bet the price was cheap to avoid court martial level problems 😅

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

He can't be court martialed, and he can't be convicted of treason either. He isn't a member of the military and Russia is not officially an enemy of America. To put it into perspective, even in the Cold War, when the Rosenbergs were convicted of espionage for giving the Soviet Union information on radar, sonar, jet propulsion, and nuclear secrets, they still weren't convicted of treason, because technically the USSR was not an enemy of America, which historically has been interpreted as "Congress has actually declared war on them" something we haven't done since WW2. If you were to look up a list of people convicted of treason in America you will note it largely stops after 1945.

And that is a very good thing, especially from the perspective that many nations still consider mild criticism of the head of state treason.

He can, however, suddenly be subjected to much, much more scrutiny than even an actually innocent person would be comfortable with for interfering with American... "Interests."

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

A civilian can't be court-martialed.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We made him an offer he couldn't refuse.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

I bet he tried though.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Why doesn't he trade them X for some of Starlink? The value of ~~Twitter~~ X is in the negatives now, right?

Then maybe as a government run social media it can be stable and boring again.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

government run social media

ree eee

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Honestly probably wouldn't be all that bad. It likely be like the cspan of social media

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Never thought of it remotely even being possible like that. With some good support & security in place, it might even be a pleasant place!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There are a few countries experimenting with their own Mastodon instances right now

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (6 children)

All of the bad faith arguments about free speech and the first amendment become real arguments about free speech and the first amendment if the government is operating the social media site. You couldn't ban someone for offensive speech or delete their post.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

They could probably get around that by outsourcing the moderation to some public group overseen by some other public ethics group, etc, and otherwise the gov’t just provides the funding to keep it all employed, running and maintained.

Not that I’m recommending it. It would have to be better than X though.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Eh the EU and some (or one) Euro country has started their own Mastodon/Fediverse instances—The idea isn't terrible if your country isn't shit.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Their instances just publish to the fediverse, they don't allow civilian accounts on their server. This is usefull, any accounts from there are guaranteed to be official.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yup, and people on other instances can still comment

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Spill some more dirt on Twitter and let them take Twitter while they're at it. Make it a 2 for 1 go away special.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (13 children)

Why are they paying him?

Just take "his" stuff and kick him in the dick.
Fuck him.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Maybe because it's easier. There are probably quite a few steps before the US government can just take your shit. Don't think the Americans are very huge fans of nationalisation and the government just taking from the rich.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Because, mad as it may seem, the rule of law still pertains

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I wonder how this is portioned out? To be completely hands free, Musk would need to sell a portion of his fleet and the control systems that operate it. This would also include relaunching replacement satellites. Since this is an orbiting system (not geostationary) he’d have to sell enough in a band around the earth to keep Ukraine covered.

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