• CryptoRoberto@sh.itjust.works
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      Tesla was built off the backs of the US taxpayer. It’s so crazy to me that he’s too dumb to realize being a toxic right winger is bad for business. He gets tax payer funds from the Democrats, his customers definitely skew left of center. I always thought Tesla was insanely over valued, but with all his bullshit and the major car manufacturers giving them competition now Tesla is bound to collapse…

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        Xesla has shaved $40k of the MSRP of their top end models since January.

        I wonder why that is?

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          You mean aside from them literally losing features over time, adding bullshit recurring payments for basic technologies, and promising for like a decade that every year was THE YEAR full auto pilot would come out? Well aside from that stuff, it’s probably all that stuff the guy above said.

          • SolidGrue@lemmy.world
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            Hey, my distrust of autopilot lies in the competency of the surrounding Human drivers. They cray-cray. Not that I own a Tesla, mind. I don’t, and won’t.

            But autopilot on these streets? Pass.

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              I trust a well-programmed computer with decent sensors more than an ad hoc chemical computer with mediocre and limited sensors hauled around in a meatbag. And when we have one of those, I will get it.

        • nilloc@discuss.tchncs.de
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          They do it to get under the new lower tax rebate limits for cars. Luxury cars are (rightly) getting less tax breaks than they used to. And Tesla is lowering prices to make sure their customers still get the rebates (which is still a huge reason anyone buys electric cars at this stage).

          The irony is that Muskrat was railing against rebates and wanted them to be cancelled, but when sensible lowering of limits made his cars uncompetitive, he could magically lower the price to keep the competitive.

      • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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        Yeah but in the era of supply side economics, selling bullshit to shareholders is what matters. The product is unimportant, what the shareholders think other shareholders think about the future of the product is what’s important to a business now.

        Shareholders skew right (some psychotically so when you consider the Saudis), and that’s who Musk is selling bullshit to.

      • kingthrillgore@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        I wouldn’t be opposed to a law change where if a company that takes subsidies breaks the law, the state can nationalize it at no cost. That would solve a lot of issues.

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      South Africa is where his families money is from and he can still have power there.

      Guantanamo Bay is where he belongs

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    The US has spent at least 80 Billion dollars arming and supporting Ukraine in it’s defense against Russian genocidal aggression and Western expansion that puts the entire NATO block in jepordy, why is Elon fucking Musk allowed to put his thumb on the scale in favor of the enemy? Why isn’t anyone in the Biden administration tearing him a new asshole form stem to stern, why isn’t anyone in the Biden administration publicly discussing nationalizing Starlink. We’re literally throwing money into conflict (for absolutely necessary, vital, and justified reason) that one man is deciding the outcomes of, and the United States government is just … what … ok with this?

      • Poggervania@kbin.social
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        Pretty much - Muskrat most likely privately funds (read: bribes) enough government officials to either stand by and do nothing or actively interfere.

        This advisor should also consider the lack of response from the US itself as part of the problem - Muskrat is helping out an enemy, but uhhh… what the fuck did the government do to curb that shit from happening in the first place?

        • Slwh47696@lemmy.world
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          Friendly reminder to everyone that all politicians are corrupt pieces of shit that will sell you out in a heartbeat. I don’t know what the solution is but anyone who isn’t rich is getting absolutely fucked by our own governments.

    • spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.worksOP
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      One thing that seems to be the case with Biden’s administration - there’s a lot going on behinds the scenes that we’re not aware of.

      You’re right, there should be some life changing repercussions for Musk. Hopefully we’ll find out those are in the works.

        • Pennomi@lemmy.world
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          If we’ve learned anything from the Trump indictments, it takes many years to build a watertight case against somebody with lots of legal resources.

          Do we need to hold Musk accountable? Yes. But also we need to do it in a way that he can’t wriggle out of, and that means years of legal work first.

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      It’s insane to me that the CEO of a private company can directly engage to change the outcome of a battle without the whole population completely losing their shit over it. This asshole turned off his product to intentionally prevent our ally from succeeding in a battle against our enemy. And his reason is that he was trying to prevent escalation. How the fuck is that his call to make?

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      Yes. Because a lot of powerful people stand to make a shitload of money off this conflict. The longer it goes, the more weapons it requires. The more weapons it requires, the more money they make.

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      Isn’t most of that $80 billion in the form of weaponry ordered from US manufacturers? Or maybe I’ve misunderstood. I thought much of the cash hasn’t really left America.

      But yeah, musk needs to be stopped. No one person should have so much power, it makes a joke of democracy.

      • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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        Most of it is actually old equipment they’re taking out of storage. Of course the US likes to have stuff like that around for various contingencies, one of which is the exact thing it’s being used for now. So new equipment will be bought for the US military and existing equipment will be placed into a storage a little sooner than usual.

        But a big chunk of that price tag is ordinance, and yeah that needs to be re-ordered right away.

        But at any rate, yeah nearly all of it is from US manufacturers, though there may be a few parts and things from allies like Canada.

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      Why with all those billions are we relying on a private company for military communications? I’m not excusing Musk AT ALL, but communications are insanely important in a conflict. Why are these governments spending all of this money and not just doing it themselves? If the military ordered supplies from Walmart and Walmart didn’t deliver them, wouldn’t we be asking the government instead “why the hell did you do that?”

    • Crozekiel@kbin.social
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      I don’t feel like nationalizing Starlink for the USA is best for everyone. It is a world-wide network, I feel like it would be better as something that isn’t controlled by any single country (but, obviously I agree it should not be controlled by a single billionaire fuck-boy either…).

      • Grellan@lemm.ee
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        Go check out who runs GPS. Starling being nationalized isn’t happening, but if it did the service would likely keep on keeping on.

        • Crozekiel@kbin.social
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          GPS is quite a bit different. The satellites just orbit and send the same information out. The user device doesn’t have to send anything back - the “communication” is only 1-way. Also, GPS is significantly further out from the planet and involves a lot less satellites, so it is not really feasible to turn them off specifically targeting a small area or an individual target - you’d have to black out a huge chunk of the planet to reliably block “an enemy” from using it.

    • atzanteol@sh.itjust.works
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      Another “liberal” who hates democracy…

      Why isn’t Biden just confiscating a private company??? Are you serious?

      • dragonflyteaparty@lemmy.world
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        How are these things in any way related?

        Democracy - the people voting on laws; representative democracy - the people voting for representatives to vote on laws

        Nationalizing a company that provides a fundamental, necessary world wide service because one man decided he could determine the outcome of a battle.

        Hmm… not really sure how these two things are related.

  • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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    No. The real question is why does one man, because of his wealth, have so much power over the life and death of other people he has no interest in.

  • Why9@lemmy.world
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    Wait, are you saying Elon Musk’s actions directly resulted in innocent women and children being murdered?

    It would be terrible if more people started saying that Elon Musk murdered innocent women and children.

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      These stories about how much of a piece of shit Musk is have been piling up for years now. I think people driving around in Teslas are going to get some damage done to their cars soon.

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        Needless violence against cars will affect Musk in no way whatsoever. Please direct your anger in a more productive direction

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          If say the Proud Boys opened up a car manufacturing plant and started producing cars, would it also be wrong to do “violence” (lmao) against people driving their cars? Where do you draw the line? Musk is much more damaging to society with his mainstreaming of fascist, machismo, white supremacist takes than the Proud Boys are, but I bet you’d have no problem with that.

          And do you really think making people second guess buying a Tesla wouldn’t hurt Musk whatsoever?

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            I think it would behoove you to stop with this kind of negative thinking. Yes, Musk is bad. Yes, he owns Tesla. But promoting acts of violence like that will not make the world a better place, nor will it discourage people from buying Teslas

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              You just keep saying violence, no matter what, is bad, which I know you and no one else believes. You’re lying to defend Musk and people supporting Musk. What reasoning do you have that acts of violence against Tesla and Tesla owners won’t make the world a better place? You seem to be relying heavily on the childish idea that violence is bad no matter what, which again you don’t believe. And of course if violence is directed to people who drive Tesla’s or their cars, people would absolutely be discouraged from buying Tesla and in return hurting Musk. We all know this, but here you are lying again.

              You’re arguing in bad faith because you have nothing to counter anything I’m saying.

              • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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                A lot of Teslas are old enough that some of the people driving them probably bought them used. Also while id be perfectly fine with people for example smashing the screens on tesla charging stations cause I find it funny, it is rather counter productive to attack car owners. I drive a Jeep, Jeep is owned by GM and GM is a shit company would you damage my car even though its old enough to drink and GM saw none of the money from me buying it.

                Irregardless if you wanted to damage Tesla park a faulty model S near their factory, its libel to explode and that would be a PR fuckfest.

    • Serinus@lemmy.world
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      I’d rather not phrase it this way because it’s true. The point of this structure is that it was always bullshit.

      It’s not straight up murder. I might have some (limited) sympathy for Elon in this case. But he should be able to see past the first action in that series of events. I believe he was dumb enough to not think of more than the surface (more on that later). If he’s not that dumb, then he truly is evil. Those submarines are not defensive.

      I think he’s managed to surround himself with alt-right grifters* who have him truly believing most of the absolute bullshit they spout. This doesn’t excuse him for what he’s doing to the world on their behalf.

      *These grifters don’t necessarily go after money directly. They also grift to direct his influence and money to their causes.

      • j4k3@lemmy.world
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        The right isn’t stupid. They use a stupid message to maintain control of the conversation as a diversion tactic that is very effective. The whole point of this is to ensure no legitimate reforms and legislation are put in place. We fall for it every time we get enraged by the bullshit. That is the joke, we are the joke, and there is no way around the fact we will spend the next 2 weeks pushing back before the next prescribed side show drops into the circus. The outcome is fixed and calculated well in advance. This entire thing is planned out. I doubt they expected this one to have quite this big of an impact, but it will disappear just like all the rest. If a supreme court justices can be openly corrupt, there is no question the oligarchic prince will walk away completely free. We have entire states like Georgia fighting against justice for the biggest coup attempt in this country’s history. The perpetrator at the center is still free years later. King Musk is invincible because of Republican Russian Red team and their oligarchy.

        • Serinus@lemmy.world
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          While I generally agree with you…

          The right isn’t stupid.

          Some of them absolutely are. Just like the Russians used r/the_donald to attract real, grassroots Americans to their cause. The ones who are using the stupidity as a strategy attract the true believers. I can’t tell you how many, but I guarantee the was at least one or two true believers in Congress. (Maybe they’ve been set straight by now.)

          • j4k3@lemmy.world
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            Marjorie Taylor Greene is probably the craziest of the bunch. She is following the Russian/Putin playbook to mobilize convenient idiots just like Trump. Lauren Boebert was a call girl, and is still turning tricks just for a higher end client. All of these people are acting their prescribed roles. They are all just actors playing roles. It has been reported that they all act completely different behind closed doors. Mobilization of convenient idiots is how Putin gained so much power. This is exactly what Republicans are doing. Most are being advised directly by Russia.

            • Serinus@lemmy.world
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              I suspect at least one, if not both, started out as true believers. And then this stuff became their job while they were being briefed on classified intelligence. Because, you know, the “deep state” does in fact try to give the legislature the information they need in order to do their jobs well.

              r/the_donald I believe started as a psyop, but the strategy they used of getting people in on a joke and then making it real kind of applies here too. I think at the start they were true believers, spouting the idiotic bullshit while fully believing it. They found they were rewarded by that behavior and intentionally escalated it and kept it up. At some point they believe most of it, but still use all of it. Now, even if they no longer believe because they’ve spent the last several years getting educated for the first time in their lives, they absolutely have to keep the act up.

              They’re following the playbook because they were recruited by the playbook. Every time they touched the MAGA button they got a treat. Now they’re millionaires. A fucking rat can do that.

              As an aside, I don’t think Trump’s much different in many ways in playing to a crowd. One difference is that I do think he was directed by Putin early. But he’s not a political rally savant. He just goes to these rallies and likes when people cheer for him. So he pushes the “cheer for me” button. Evidence of that is when he got booed for promoting the vaccine. He’s not a genius at controlling the narrative. He just uses the narrative that works (even if much of that narrative was handed to him). He’s not the first person who can identify what people want to hear. And he has help. He, like any politician, has advisors doing polls and telling him what his people want to hear.

              There exist smart Republicans who have been acting the entire time for grift and were never true believers. Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell, Michael Flynn, Michael Cohen, Jim Jordan. The problem with acting in bad faith and using stupid bullshit is that you do attract those true believers, and those true believers eventually advance. I bet a good chunk of the Republican caucus actually believes in trickle down economics. Because the people they see are the ones that benefit from it, and they’re heavily incentivized to rationalize their bullshit however they can.

              I’m open to being wrong. It’s just a hypothesis.

  • Surreal@programming.dev
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    Elon Musk is afraid of Putin’s revenge. Crucial infrastructure like Starlink should be handled by the government, not a corp. Otherwise the corp will prioritize shareholders and profit rather than human’s life

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      I think he’s basically gullible. His companies have given him so much money, he just assumes he’s right. However he doesn’t understand diplomacy and Putin played him. He should have deferred to the state department, who deal with that BS all the time

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      A couple of years ago, Musk stated that Putin is substantially richer than he is.

      Add to that Putin’s bloodthirsty lunacy. Musk may actually fear his wrath.

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      But then comes the issue, which government? As Starlink is global infrastructure.

      • Atomic@sh.itjust.works
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        Pretty sure he’s talking about the government of the country the company is registered in. As the is the only one that can realistically nationalise it.

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        Starlink is only ‘global’ as long as Elon approves of the GPS coordinates. With that in mind, ‘global’ is about a joke, it’s at Elon’s whim…

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    So, explain to me how Elon should not be considered a strategic target now? He is materially supporting the Ruzzians by killing innocent civilians. He cannot be ignored at this point.

    It seems he should be considered an obvious target by anyone who wishes to support the Ukranian defense. Maybe someone close enough to him supports Ukraine and will see a moral obligation (and opportunity) to defend Ukraine.

    • iforgotmyinstance@lemmy.world
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      Russia is a sanctioned nation with a public history of cyber attacks and false flag attacks on Americans. They also openly meddled in the 2016 and 2020 elections (thank fuck they didn’t pull 2020 successfully).

      Providing aid and comfort to Russian military and political figures is explicitly treason.

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        I think I recall the punishment for treason is pretty stiff. The day he is held accountable will be a day for celebration.

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      I’m amazed US DOD hasn’t torn him a new asshole considering they’re now paying to use Starlink in Ukraine. Musks ability to decide how Starlink should be used is a clear security risk.

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        Agreed! At this point, the DoD would be ignorant to not prioritize their own development of an LEO network. Once in place, they could dislodge or remove any of Elon’s floating shitballs to prioritize the safe operation of their own, citing national security. Fuck Elon.

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    Its interesting that he’s poking the marshmallow here, because Musk can still turn off Starlink, or make it unusable for Ukraine as much as his contract with DoD allows. This implies that Ukraine screamed bloody murder about this months ago, and DoD has given them gear to be able to bypass Starlink.

    I think DoD also doesn’t like Elon having this kind of power, and allowed him to be a stopgap now that they never plan to use again. It’s interesting from a geopolitical and financial perspective for Starlink; they blew it and they’re not a future reliable partner for taking Russia’s side.

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      A lot of people are missing the big picture here. Look up Starshield. SpaceX is aggressively hiring for the Starlink DoD edition essentially. I suspect the US govt is not as worried about this as you think

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      Using starlink is now directly supporting the Russian invasion

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    The US should nationalize Starlink. If private business decisions are going to undermine world stability then those decisions are antithetical to any kind of peace and need to be treated as the threat that they are. A single person picking sides shouldn’t result in a casual body count that Elon never is punished for but it now does and he looks to be getting away with actual manslaughter.

    • bradorsomething@ttrpg.network
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      The response we’ll see is the DoD making their own Starlink, but with $500 toilet seats and $100 hammers. Aw, forget the Starlink, we’ll just do those.

  • Danc4498@lemmy.ml
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    God damn that was so well said. All I could come up with was “Fuck Elon Musk”.

  • Hiccup@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    He’s a saboteur. Detain the mother fucker and try him for treason. At the very least, his removal from his companies is paramount to national security at this point.

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    Ukraine should make sure he doesn’t do that again

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    Whether or not any of this bullshit is true, I’m just glad that there’s growing distain for billionaires.

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    Starlink is a great system. The problem is its idiot owner, Musk, who is more worried how the use of Starlink in the Ukraine is going to affect his company stock. You’re in the big leagues now, Elmo. You cant “sort of” commit to a war unless you’re a rich Saudi dilettante, who wants to try his hand at international shiat-stirring.

    • jarfil@lemmy.world
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      The use of Starlink was restricted by US Government sanctions: no use on Russian territory or assets.

      Tough luck, that also means no using it for attacking on Russian territory or assets.

      Edit: Here’s a link with sources and dates.

        • jarfil@lemmy.world
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          Crimea is Ukraine

          Crimea is Stalin’s “present” to the Republic of Ukraine after the ethnic cleansing and genocide of Crimean Tatars by the USSR.

          Do you support that genocide?

          that’s not how sanctions work at all

          These sanctions work exactly like that: no service, means no service, not “no service, but sometimes some”.

          If you want an exception, you ask the US Government, not some rando running the service.

            • jarfil@lemmy.world
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              You may want to look up the meaning of “tankie”, then re-read my comment, followed by some basic history notions, like the link I’ve provided.

      • Kittengineer@lemmy.world
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        Musk didn’t allow it. Full stop. It’s not so,e government sanction thing.

        Even quotes you reference are from Musk, himself, sharing why he decided so. Musk said he chose not to activate it because he’d be apart of escalating the war…

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          Musk said he chose not to activate it because he’d be apart of escalating the war…

          …which was against US Government policy.

          Please read all the links before cherry picking only some of them.

          • Kittengineer@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            What against US policy? Escalating the war? We already are sending tons of military equipment, some used in counter offensives.

            Post the link and full article you got that from, I’d like to read but many of the links are pay walled.

            Here’s what I read from one of the links you referenced, I would think Musk would say it’s against US policy if that’s the reason he chose not to activate Starlink

            “There was an emergency request from government authorities to activate Starlink all the way to Sevastopol,” Musk wrote on X, the platform previously known as Twitter.

            “The obvious intent being to sink most of the Russian fleet at anchor. If I had agreed to their request, then SpaceX would be explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation,” Musk wrote.

            An excerpt about the raid from American author and journalist Walter Isaacson’s upcoming biography on Musk, titled “Elon Musk,” was published by CNN. Ukrainian submarine drones loaded with explosives were approaching a Russian naval fleet in the Crimean city of Sevastopol when they lost connection and “washed ashore harmlessly,” according to Isaacson.

            Musk was concerned about Russia responding to the naval attack with a nuclear weapon, Isaacson wrote in the book, according to CNN. Ukrainian officials

            • jarfil@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              What against US policy?

              You can check the list of sanctions imposed on Ukraine/Russia, which regions, types of activity and subjects, along with the exceptions and licenses at:

              https://ofac.treasury.gov/sanctions-programs-and-country-information/ukraine-russia-related-sanctions

              You may notice that US citizens have been forbidden from providing telecommunications services, including via satellite, in the conflict areas since early 2022, requiring a special license to operate.

              Starlink didn’t have such license, and only got a DoD agreement in mid 2023.

              In late 2022, Musk would’ve had to break that policy in order to allow the drones to be controlled into the conflict zone.

              As for him saying so… I don’t think he’s the type to paint himself as subservient to the government, even if he is; more like the megalomaniac type claiming to have stopped WW3 barehanded, even if he literally did nothing.

              • Kittengineer@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                So the only one saying Musk didn’t activate Starlink was because of US sanctions is you, and not even Musk himself.

                There’s not article, just you deducing from the US sanctions list.

      • banneryear1868@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Great example of people downvoting the truth away. The spectacle of American politics can no longer address material truths, outside of merely referencing good or bad actors.

        Elon’s negative image is proof because he used to be widely considered as someone solving the climate crisis through free market capitalism, but the truth is he never changed and has always been this way, and the system he operates in where people need cars is the problem.

        It’s also a given that Americans are blind or refuse to acknowledge the effects of their government’s sanctions on the world, the private business interests that benefit, and the way they exploit people like themselves in other countries and use them as pawns.