Summary
The FAA is reportedly set to cancel a $2.4 billion contract with Verizon to modernize air traffic control communications and instead award it to Elon Musk’s Starlink.
Musk has publicly criticized Verizon’s system as failing, though without evidence. SpaceX employees have been embedded within the FAA, and some now have agency email addresses.
The move raises concerns about favoritism and conflicts of interest, especially as Musk’s companies have received $38 billion in government funding.
The contract transfer has not followed standard procedures, prompting resistance from senior FAA officials.
Aha! Trump uncovers corruption within DOGE itself!
You misspelled creates
Musk doesn’t care anymore if he tanks Tesla, as long as he’s getting government handouts.
Tesla’s shareholders might though.
Good. Then the shareholders can sue and make things more difficult for everyone involved.
Then don’t be a Tesla shareholder, fucking duh. Sell that shit, fuck this guy.
I’d have to buy shares before I could sell them.
So no need to worry then
What if my shares lose value then?
Just buy the dip
Short Tesla, got it.
Aaaannddd there it is… Certainly no conflicts of interest /s
The attempt to sell Teslas to the military was definitely a conflict of interests as well.
The concept of a conflict of interest only matters if American voters care , and they don’t.
Some might think this is corruption, but I assure you, this was the best offer we could find, because all the others got lost somehow?
Sounds like a real lack of efficiency
It’s super efficient to lose the papers of all but one applicant. Really speeds up those decision times.
Nonono, Musk has already helped us with that. We are saving hundreds of dollars on wages, and only very few planes have crashed.
I hope Verizon sues Musk, Starlink, and the DOGE into oblivion. Even if they don’t have a chance of winning, they should be able to make it more difficult to do anything. Airlines should sue too due to the preventable crashes that occurred recently. In fact, I hope every company affected by DOGE’s policies sues.
They might not be able to get a fair trial, but they could potentially bog the system down in red tape.
Give ‘em Hell!
Hoisted by their own petard, it seems. I’m with you. I hope they fight, but they also helped create this situation (like many corporations).
https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/verizon-communications/summary?id=D000000079
I don’t doubt it at all, but as the passage goes, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”. Or as I like to say: baby steps.
Nah, the enemy of my enemy is the enemy of my enemy, nothing more, nothing less.
But as a great man once said, “Let them fight.”
Yeah, triangular politics. I’m on board. I regret that getting into this discussion any further will require reading from the works of Kissinger. Maybe this time we can fix the problem without bombing a fourth party like Cambodia. Who knows. All bets are of at this point.
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Sadly you’re probably spot on. 😞
So
- replace wires with satellite
- which can fail or be slow
- just so musk can shut it off at a whim
This is gonna be great, you guys.
Sorry, all flights grounded because solar flares. At least we only lost 20 planes this time.
Sorry, all flights grounded because some fuckwit decided to use satellites for a network instead of fiber underground and a bad actor jammed the radio spectrum.
Sorry, all flights are grounded because Elmo Muskrat got in a pissy fit on Twitter with a 15 year old kid, and he showed him by shutting off the satellite network over the US. (Variation on your last bullet.)
I came here to say this. This doesn’t look like replacing the air controller work, it’s about the comm network. And it’s making it dependent on fucking micro satellites, holy dumb shovel buckets.
Yeah, it is in fact a terrible idea.
Lets not forget delay issues. Something that could be very deadly in ATC.
Yep. Never flying again.
This is handing the button that controls your life over to elon… He had them strategically turn off Ukraine’s internet at a critical moment to benefit putin… What do you think he’s going to do when Jasmine Crockett’s plane in on final approach to land back in her district after having the “fuck off, elon” press conference?
Oh, THERE it is. This is why Elump has allowed so many air traffic control issues recently. To set the stage for this bullshit.
Sorry, I’m kinda slow sometimes.
“Allowed”? In what sense? Are you seriously suggesting Trump or Musk are responsible for a Delta crash in Canada, and helicopter collision and a Southwest go around?
In the sense that the issue isn’t being addressed as quickly or as seriously as it should be. Cancelling a contract and awarding it to a company with zero experience is not the answer.
Musk is a walking ethics violation.
I have no love for Verizon but using starlink is the definition of a conflict of interest. I mean so has everything else he’s been doing but this one is especially egregious.
An overhaul from the man who sells “full self driving”. What could possibly go wrong? 🙄
We call this a conflict of interest. Fuck Musk. Guess whose planes will never show up in flight logs so he, Trump, and all of Putin’s other stooges can fly around and make deals with no bother.
If the US does not accurately report flights, then the only solution is to cut it off from all international air travel. Any planes that would leave the US air space should be immediately forced to land or turn around by military aircraft in whichever airspace they enter.
I bet this is definitely a contributing factor to his actions. Hard to fly a drone into his engine if you don’t know which plane is his…
Um, I’d like to choose whatever the fuck might be behind door number 3. Even if it’s murder hornets. As long as they are the data transmission sort of murder hornets.
Creating problems to justify enriching themselves with private contracts… America, to the highest bidder
