U.S. sanctions on Russia meant that Starlink satellite connection near Crimea could not be turned on for a Ukrainian military operation without permission from the U.S. president, Elon Musk said at the All-In Summit in Los Angeles on Sept. 12.

  • bitsplease
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    1 year ago

    Lol, funny how that’s a totally different reason than he first gave, now that he saw the backlash

    And unsurprising that he’s using it as an opportunity to double down on his new conservative pandering, but somehow making it “Biden wouldn’t let me!”

    • wagesj45@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Every time I see a celebrity fuckup like this, who almost certainly has a PR team on call (or could afford one if they don’t), I take their situation and plug it into ChatGPT and almost always it spits out a better PR strategy and statement than they come up with.

      The artists and writers are gonna be fine in the AI apocalypse. It’s the PR firms that need to be scared.

  • Hanabie@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    The US really need an alternative to this guy. If a private person with zero democratic legitimacy can influence wars in which the USA have picked a side, and support the enemy, mechanisms are needed.

    • BaroqueInMind@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      The US military could’ve done the job, but it’s mired down by Republicans in Congress trying to fuck with Biden.

      It is Congress ultimately, not the President, who controls the military via budget decisions and provides permission for the military to conduct kinetic actions.

      • athos77@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        it’s mired down by Republicans in Congress trying to fuck with Biden.

        Not really. It’s mired down with Republicans who want to do to the military what they’ve already done with the judiciary: keep the Democrats from promoting anyone so that the Republicans can stuff massive amounts of right-wing people in place as soon as they get a chance. Meaning that their next insurrection has a better chance of succeeding.

        Fucking with Biden is just a bonus.

    • Givesomefucks@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Republicans have spent a literal lifetime sabotaging the government at any opportunity so stuff can be privatized…

      That’s already the alternative, we don’t need to find one. We just need to go back to taxing the wealthy, and using that money for public services.

      Internet should be a public utility, and all the money we give to SpaceX should have went to NASA where the government would have gotten a return on investment from parents.

      People laugh at how crazy the predictions of the future from 1960 was, but if we kept funding NASA we might all have hoverboards and flying cars by now. We got a lot of really cool shit from just a decade of NASA in their hey day.

  • jsdz
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    1 year ago

    Ha! Good one, Elon. Give whichever of your writers came up with that one a promotion.

    • Overzeetop@sopuli.xyz
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      1 year ago

      Why would he promote them? They’ve completed their work; they can expect a pink slip on Friday, retroactive to 2 minutes after they submitted their marketing brief.

  • Wet Noodle@sopuli.xyz
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    1 year ago

    Why the fuck does elon know anything about how and where starlink is being deployed when he’s making the pentagon pay to allow Ukraine’s use of it militarily?

      • Jax@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        Of all the things to be angry about in this circumstance, they choose that. A man knowing what his company is doing?

  • Jaysyn@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    If that were true, he wouldn’t be getting investigated by the Senate. He’s just making up excuses to see what sticks.

  • narcogen@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Why would sanctions against Russia affect Starlink operation in Crimea, which is part of Ukraine?

  • Ignacio@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Musk says he didn’t turn on Starlink near Crimea due to US sanctions on Russia

    WRONG! Crimea is Ukraine, you dumb fuck.