We tend to keep on falling for the same shit time after time after time.
If you're a billionaire, you must be the smartest guy in the room, and whatever capability you possess must apply to every other endeavor.
So he asked me, "You're smart - why ain't you rich?"
And I asked him, "You're rich - why ain't you smart?"
I think maybe someone is in Elon Musk's ear telling him he should be using his economic and social power to remake the world in the image of his businesses, and he's perfectly able to do whatever he wants simply by virtue of his bank balance.
I get the feeling someone else - someone who actually knows what the fuck they're doing - got in his other ear and told him to stop fuckin' with things he doesn't understand.
Elon Musk blocked Ukraine from using Starlink in Crimea over concern that Putin could use nuclear weapons, political analyst says
Elon Musk personally rejected a Ukrainian request to extend his satellite internet service to Crimea, fearing that an effort to retake the peninsula from Russian forces could lead to a nuclear war, the influential political analyst Ian Bremmer said in a newsletter published on Monday.
Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February, Musk — and the US government — provided Kyiv with thousands of Starlink systems, enabling Ukrainian forces to communicate in what had previously been dead zones. The low energy requirements of the service's satellite receivers have enabled connection to reconnaissance drones, providing valuable real-time intelligence on Russian movements and the ability to target them, Yahoo News reported in August.
But recently there have been problems. Last week, a senior Ukrainian government official told the Financial Times reported that the service was suffering "catastrophic" outages on the front lines, prompting speculation that it had been shut off in areas controlled by Russia — perhaps to prevent the Kremlin from exploiting the network.
On Twitter, Musk said he could not comment on battlefield conditions, saying, "That's classified." But Bremmer, the founder and president of the political-risk research firm Eurasia Group, said on Monday that in a conversation with Musk in late September, Musk appeared to confirm that the satellite service was being intentionally disabled.
Neither SpaceX nor Ukraine's ministry of defense immediately responded to requests for comment.
Bremmer said Musk told him he'd been asked by Ukraine's defense ministry to activate Starlink in Crimea, which Russia invaded and illegally annexed in 2014. Bremmer said Musk "refused given the potential for escalation."
According to Bremmer, Musk claimed to have recently spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin, asserting that he was "prepared to negotiate." (Musk this month proposed a Ukraine peace plan seen as aligning with Russian interests.) Bremmer said Musk told him that in that conversation, Putin threatened to use nuclear weapons if Ukraine tried to retake the Crimean peninsula, which serves as the base for Russia's naval forces on the Black Sea.
On Twitter, however, Musk flatly denied having any recent conversation with the Russian leader, writing on Tuesday that he had "spoken to Putin only once and that was about 18 months ago." The subject, he said, "was space." Bremmer was likewise adamant, tweeting that Musk "told me he had spoken with Putin and the Kremlin directly about Ukraine."
Russian forces have been losing ground in Ukraine's south and have lost huge swaths in Ukraine's east as they've pressed into regions Russia declared it had annexed, sparking concern among arms-control experts about whether Putin and his top advisers may contemplate an attack with a nuke from their vast arsenal in an attempt to stanch their losses.
But then -
‘The hell with it’: Elon Musk tweets SpaceX will ‘keep funding Ukraine govt for free’ amid Starlink controversy
Elon Musk said in a tweet Saturday that his company SpaceX would continue to fund Starlink satellite internet terminals for the Ukrainian government as it battles invading Russian forces.
“The hell with it,” the billionaire tweeted, “even though Starlink is still losing money & other companies are getting billions of taxpayer $, we’ll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free.”
It was not immediately clear whether Musk, who is also the CEO of Tesla was being sarcastic. In response to a tweet about the move, Musk said, “we should still do good deeds.” Responding to another tweet saying that Musk had already paid taxes that are funding Ukraine’s defense, he said, “Fate loves irony.”
The tweets follow a statement from Musk on Friday in which he said that SpaceX cannot continue fund Starlink terminals in Ukraine “indefinitely,” after a report suggested his space company had asked the Pentagon to cover the costs.
Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In a letter from SpaceX to the Pentagon, the company said that the use of Starlink in Ukraine could cost close to $400 million over the next 12 months, according to a report by CNN. SpaceX has signed several contracts with the U.S. government.
SpaceX’s donated Starlink internet terminals have been crucial in keeping Ukraine’s military online during the war against Russia, even as communication infrastructure gets destroyed. Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in February.
Musk drew criticism from Ukrainian officials earlier this month when he posted a Twitter poll gauging support for what he claimed was a likely outcome of the Russia-Ukraine war.
He appeared to confirm that SpaceX was planning to leave Ukraine in some capacity Friday, replying to a Twitter post that referenced the Ukrainian ambassador telling Musk to “fuck off.”
“We’re just following his recommendation,” Musk said.
The SpaceX founder is also in the middle of a $44 billion bid to buy Twitter, which he had tried to get out of. A judge ruled that he has until Oct. 28 to close the acquisition if he hopes to avoid a trial.
And there's the rub. I can sit here and spout off to my 1-or-200 daily visitors*, and nobody has to worry that a million Ukrainians and Russians are going to get blown to bits because of some stupid notion that managed to creep across the axonal gap inside my little brain pan, making me think I know more than the people who've made solid careers out of getting us all through this kinda shit more or less intact.
That's not to say the smart guys always get it right - fake lord knows we've listened to assholes like Kissinger and Cheney and Rumsfeld, and the world has suffered because of it. But the good guys still outnumber the assholes - good guys like Carter and Blinken and Kerry and Albright and Hillary - and the world spins madly on as we muddle through and stumble forward.
*Note: A very big Thank You to everybody who drops by to pick up a few of my brain droppings. (hat tip - George Carlin)
