this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2023
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[–] underisk@lemmy.ml 140 points 1 year ago (6 children)

I’d like to see more substantial consequences for consciously and deliberately sabotaging a war operation using a service the pentagon paid him to provide.

[–] zcd@lemmy.ca 40 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If any of us did that we’d be behind bars

[–] underisk@lemmy.ml 23 points 1 year ago

Buddy we wouldn't even make it to trial.

[–] EmpathicVagrant@lemmy.world 26 points 1 year ago (1 children)

But he was slammed in a headline! There’s no way any other consequence could even be achievable.

/s

[–] underisk@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Don't worry, I'm sure our leaders are formulating a strongly worded condemnation of their own. One might even venture to suggest they could hold a hearing about it, or assign a task force to investigate! Canceling his government contracts or charging him with anything are obviously off the table, though.

[–] EmpathicVagrant@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Of course that’s off the table, there’s simply no way any kind of law enforcement in our country would ever consider such violent response to actions made by a citizen.

[–] sxan@midwest.social 1 points 1 year ago

By a wealthy citizen, you mean.

[–] s20@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well, he's not a representative of any state, so technically assassination wouldn't be an act of war...

I'm not advocating, just pointing out that as an individual, his position is a bit more precarious than I think he realizes.

[–] LeadSoldier@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

And as much as I liked President Obama, he did set the precedent by targeting and killing a (bad) US citizen.

[–] FredericChopin_@feddit.uk 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] LeadSoldier@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Anwar al-Awlaki. Most things that I'm seeing about him are that he is the first US citizen targeted by a drone strike but I remember it being a big deal that he was the first US citizen assassinated at all.

[–] FredericChopin_@feddit.uk 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

First that we know off.

Although I oppose drone strikes and Obama was the king of them, this fella was in Yeman at the time which is a bit different than wigging off your citizens on home soil.

[–] Sludgehammer@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Um... Obama isn't the king of drone strikes, the Trump administration surpassed the total number Obama era drone strikes in under two years IIRC.

[–] FredericChopin_@feddit.uk 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Seems you’re correct. I stand corrected.

Not that it matters but I am not American and have no dog in this race. I liked Obama and thought trump was… different.

[–] mateomaui@reddthat.com 6 points 1 year ago

That’s the most benign description of trump that I’ve read in a while.

[–] money_loo@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

You might be thinking of how Obama was the “king of making them safer” because before him they just let it blow up Kids and crap willy-nilly, and he was tired of seeing that stuff so he made them create a less explosive more knife like drone for less casualties.

The flying ginsu.

[–] FilthyHookerSpit@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

He didn't sabotage it though, as another user pointed out (with sources) he had already turned off starlink awhile ago and didn't want to turn it back on for just this strike.

https://lemmy.world/comment/3259657

[–] spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The richest man in the world facing consequences for his actions? Not in this timeline.

[–] FiftyShadesOfLatte@lemmy.world 46 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Starlink is a US defense contractor. These decisions should not be Elons to make.

[–] vodkasolution@feddit.it 1 points 1 year ago

Starlink is unfortunately a Musk property

[–] PunnyName@lemmy.world 44 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Why we shouldn't allow corporations to control information, or information services. They need to be publicly owned.

[–] spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works -5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Or there need to be lots of competing services owned by different companies. That worked reasonably well until companies that are essentially monopolies became the norm, and it's not just news agencies that are a problem. The high inflation we've been seeing is largely caused by record profits that little or no competition allows.

[–] Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"Capitalism worked pretty well until capitalism happened."

The only way you're getting lots of competing services from competing companies is with a LOT of government regulation of the market. Otherwise the rational behaviour for everyone involved in a free market inevitably leads to monopolies.

If you're looking for a compromise between "everything is state run" and "late stage capitalism" then you can always go with something like the Canadian "Crown Corporation" model, where you create a not-for-profit company whose charter requires them to provide the best possible service at the best possible price. Then you let them compete with the market. Sasktel in Saskatchewan is a great example of this. Canada has famously terrible telecoms pricing, but in Saskatchewan rates are much, much cheaper than the rest of the country, because everyone has to compete with the floor set by Sasktel.

[–] spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Government used to actively dismantle companies that acted as monopolies. There doesn't need to be a lot of government regulation until things get to that point, but you're right - Everybody wants to rule the world.

[–] PipedLinkBot@feddit.rocks 1 points 1 year ago

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[–] Rapidcreek@reddthat.com 25 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Musk can't be licensed to run a telecommunications company and just do that. It must be stipulated by contract.

[–] jayrhacker@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Who regulates spectrum in disputed territory? As an operator you have to pick who you're willing to piss off more, Russia has nukes and the capability to physically disrupt the Starlink network.

[–] Rapidcreek@reddthat.com 4 points 1 year ago

The International Telecommunications Union which is part of the UN. More importantly, US law is applicable, and it says you can't do such a thing unless you stipulate in ontract that you can.

[–] downpunxx@kbin.social 15 points 1 year ago

neither ignorance nor ego, elon musk is simply a big wet sloppy nazi cunt. simple.

[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 13 points 1 year ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


A furious Ukrainian official has blasted Elon Musk after it was revealed the SpaceX and Starlink founder sabotaged a stealth attack on Russia when he refused to grant access to satellites.

According to Musk’s biographer, that meant during an undercover Ukrainian operation in the Crimean coastal region of Russia, the Twitter owner ordered satellite communications be shut down.

In an excerpt viewed by CNN, Musk’s biographer Walter Isaacson writes that Ukrainian drones packed with explosives were headed towards a Russian naval fleet before the tech titan made the order.

Although some of Musk’s backers on the platform supported his decision, others believe Musk—an unelected figure now playing a major role in a global conflict—isn’t qualified to make such calls.

Continuing the conversation on the social media site—which Musk purchased last year for $44 billion—the entrepreneur called for a truce between Ukraine and Russia: “Every day that passes, more Ukrainian and Russian youth die to gain and lose small pieces of land, with borders barely changing.

“Elon, you make great cars (and a lot of money), but that doesn’t qualify you in any way to tip the scales in an existential fight for freedom for the people of Ukraine,” responded Bill Browder, a human rights campaigner and CEO of investment fund Hermitage Capital Management, adding: “Russia started this war, Ukraine is defending itself.


The original article contains 766 words, the summary contains 222 words. Saved 71%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] Motavader@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Musk is an absolute sociopath, but there's actually a logic to this.

Apparently the US has extremely tight export controls for telecomm tech used for war, and Starlink was concerned that by Ukraine using it in an offensive way it would result in the US or other countries classifying Starlink as military tech, thereby limiting where they can export it. That would be really bad for Starlink, of course, which is why they specified at the beginning that Ukraine should only use it for civilian goals (hospitals, schools, government, etc).

I assume the contract between Starlink and the Pentagon covers that, but I haven't researched that far.

[–] orcrist@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

What you're describing could not be done in an unbiased way. For example, you're hinging everything on the distinction between whether something is offensive or not, but whoever decides that is in fact making a political and military decision.

Starlink had the option to decline the customer on the whole. We don't want to let them off the hook because they intentionally created a situation where they had and used the power to affect individual battles in real time.

Oh lawd they slammin

Wow this comment section looks like a Raytheon board meeting.

[–] muzzle@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

I had an epiphany today: Jonathan Coulton's the future soon is a song about Elon #Musk.

[–] Neato@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Always nice to see JoCo in the wild. :)

[–] muzzle@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I was listening to the Doubleclicks' Lasers and Feelings and had a realization that it could be the counterpart to The Future Soon.

Then I went back to listen to it and had a second epiphany about the narrator of the latter being Musk :)

[–] PipedLinkBot@feddit.rocks 1 points 1 year ago

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Pretty funny. Thanks.

[–] PipedLinkBot@feddit.rocks 2 points 1 year ago

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[–] whispering_depths@lemmy.world -2 points 1 year ago

if it wasn't this bitches would be complaining that he's providing internet for war shit lol