this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2023
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politics

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How the U.S. government came to rely on the tech billionaire—and is now struggling to rein him in.

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[–] [email protected] 213 points 1 year ago (4 children)

That's easy...the US needs to asset imminent domain on starlink. You don't fucking blackmail the government.

[–] [email protected] 118 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (26 children)

And SpaceX as a whole. It's entirely government funded anyway. Should have kept that money in NASA where it belonged. Fortunately, there's an easy way to put it all right back.

(Also, archive link of top article here: https://archive.is/H6rzo )

[–] [email protected] 92 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

not entirely government funded, but enough that, if they withdraw funding, it would totally collapse.

the entire argument that “private companies do it cheaper” is mostly because they cut corners, skirt regulations, and screw over employees to do business on the cheap. then, we find out there may be massive security breaches like, oh, chatting with Putin and god knows who else...

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

Part of the problem is nasa seems to be very risk adverse now. Letting private companies take the risk is one way to get around that. I'm just glad we don't have to depend on russia to get to space or the iss.

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

Don't forget potentially underpay people. I don't believe that's happening for SpaceX specifically, but it does for many other competitors to government jobs. Government jobs aren't necessarily super high pay, but they usually have solid pay with excellent benefits, pension, and work/life balance.

So when jobs move from the public to private sector, it often comes at the cost of employees. And in some extreme cases, employees are paid so little that they have to rely on government benefits to get by, which is extremely dumb. That's subsidizing the private sector.

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

From what I've heard it's true. If you have a job offer from NASA and one from SpaceX, the NASA one is better.

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Or they should've never left this to the private sector if there was going to be a strategic component to it. Now they're at the mercy of an unstable foreign national, who is himself beholden to a bunch of foreign investors.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 year ago

Turns out unregulated capitalism might be slightly at odds with democracy.

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You don't fucking blackmail the government.

Tell that to scientology.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Lol no kidding.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

You don’t fucking blackmail the government

lol, only he obviously is, so....
And I guarantee he was long before starlink - the riches man on earth doesn't get that way and stay that way without owning at least a handful of politicians (and now his own media outlet of which he has absolute control and millions of existing followers ready to worship his every word).

I genuinely don't understand how anyone can still look at anything this man does and think it's benign, or worse, clueless..

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

With the rich, never attribute to stupidity what you can attribute to malice.

[–] [email protected] 93 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Time to revoke any clearances he has and refuse to renew any contracts with the government.

[–] [email protected] 47 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You know, it seems like something like this should be illegal. Maybe name it something like the Logan Act.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Great name! I, too, enjoy some Wolverine.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (3 children)
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[–] [email protected] 82 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

On the phone, Musk said that he was looking at his laptop and could see “the entire war unfolding” through a map of Starlink activity. “This was, like, three minutes before he said, ‘Well, I had this great conversation with Putin,’ ” the senior defense official told me. “And we were, like, ‘Oh, dear, this is not good.’ ”

It's like the Elon India Tea Company. Strange to think we've got so many individuals that rival any sort of elected officials and that our government is becoming aware of this. Elon in particular seems to have the US over several barrels, space, battlefield communications, recharge stations, and now Twitter and AI possibly from the bottom of a k hole.

Wild, also: I forget how good the New Yorker is. That whole article was fascinating. I feel like I learned a lot and it was interesting.

[–] [email protected] 80 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Boy if only the pentagon had a way to deal with rogue actors, I wonder what they’re in charge of

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

Sounds like the octagon didnt get it done, so we might as well give another shape a try.

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[–] [email protected] 61 points 1 year ago (2 children)

So he is.. breaking the US law.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hahaha, this person thinks laws apply to the wealthy.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Who don't go out of their way to annoy the other powerful and rich.

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

Yes. If he talks with Putin about "government policy" or "international relations" then he has to register with the US government as doing so.

It's against the law to privately speak with foreign nations about those categories. It may put you at odds with US policy or maybe you dont see the whole picture, so it's better in the US eyes to ban foreign diplomacy by private citizens.

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 year ago

of course Saruman called Sauron

[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Then the question everyone should ask him on Twitter/X is... "Are you an agent of foreign principal?"

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

he is an agent of capital principle

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

no he isn't.. he has only ONE principle.. it is spelled E - L - O - N..

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

How can we call our system a democracy when one unelected man can hold so much power?

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Look at Rupert Murdoch. He unquestionably holds more power than Musk and has been at it for a long time. Democracy is an illusion, since people are very easily influenced by the media they consume.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Better education that emphasizes skepticism and critical thinking would do so much to fight the influence of media.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If hitler was alive he'd boast he personally spoke to him as well as if it was some kind of achievement

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Ein reich? Ein Volk? Ein Führer?

Interesting.

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

“arrest me for espionage and/or treason, please"

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

They can't arrest him. In the U.S., we have a wealth threshold above which there is no accountability.

The only reason trump is being held accountable is because he isn't a billionaire. If you count his debts, he probably isn't even a millionaire.

His son-in-law Jared sold secrets to the Saudis for billions, but now he's a billionaire so he cannot be held accountable for being a spy and a traitor. That's how we do things in the U.S. The wealthy cannot be held accountable here.

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

Struggling implies that they tried anything

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

They should get that guy the Flanders's used and spank Elon for a year until he's not a turd any more.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Elon is already plenty annoying. I couldn't imagine how much more so he'd be if he started talking like Flanders. (Iirc that spanking was the reason Ned began using the gibberish).

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

At first, I thought this was one of those rule posts.

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