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Yet he’s taking DoD money for Starlink in Ukraine. At what point do his antics turn from the craziness of a billionaire to espionage and being deemed a Russian asset?
Musk openly stated that he spoke directly with Putin after the Ukraine invasion had started. The super wealthy have no loyalties and will sell anyone and anything to the highest bidder. I've said it before, every penny after $1 billion needs to be taxed at 100%. Time to reign in the oligarchs.
Imagine if Lockheed martin "shut off" a jet because it was "getting too close to China"
What would be the response by the DOJ?
I would think the military would call that an act of treason and imprison or disappear any executives they thought were involved
It would be hilarious for the US and/or the EU freeze his assets and punch his market influence to the ground if they accuse him of espionage.
Nationalizing the satellites that we paid for as a national security asset sure seems reasonable here, seeing as he likely broke a contract when he disabled them.
Imagine if Lockheed disabled an allied F16's targeting computer during a mission; there would be hell to pay.
I've said in the past that something was clearly wrong when he bought Twitter. His behavior was far too targeted. It's all way too obvious.
The spin at the end is just fluffy bullshit. Starlink, from the get go, has had bandwidth reserved for military operations albeit US military operation but military operations nonetheless. The real question here is how and why did he know that operation was happening and what other operations has he known about/thwarted/or knowingly or unknowingly passed along information about.
Maybe the same FSB agents that were driving his paranoia. Assuming they knew about the attack, they could get a bigger win by stopping it and removing Starlink from the equation at the same time, than by stopping the attack with military means.
Definitely. He used terms such as "Lenin's mistake" when talking about Ukraine which is rather specific to Russian nationalist ideology. You don't stumble across such a thing by accident.
“How am I in this war?” Musk asks Isaacson. “Starlink was not meant to be involved in wars. It was so people can watch Netflix and chill and get online for school and do good peaceful things, not drone strikes.”
Musk, transparent as ever, makes sure to tell his biographer that it's about peace, man, and has nothing to do with his love of authoritarian regimes.
Nothing more peaceful than supporting an authoritarian war criminal 🥰
“How am I in this war?”
Bitch, you put yourself there!
And a shit eating little shoe-horn of the phrase "Netflix and chill".
Didn't his company supply a bunch of Starlinks because of the war? Was he expecting Ukranians needed to watch more Netflix and do more school stuff while getting bombed out by the Ruzzians? What a crock
Musk was reportedly motivated to foil the attack out of concern that a strike on Crimea would constitute a “mini-Pearl Harbor” and lead to Russia retaliating with nuclear weapons
So glad the blue-checks get to dictate our foreign policy now.
What was all that DoD money for? A suggestion box?
Not like Russia invading Ukraine was a mini pearl harbor, nooooooo not that.
Isn't it illegal to screw with the military actions of the U.S. ... and its allies?!!?
I don't think what he did was illegal per se, but he is definitely positioning himself against US geopolitical interests, which is a really bad idea if you are a US citizen, living in the United States. If he were to give away any military secrets that pass through star link, which I'm sure Russia will inevitably ask him to do, he will get arrested for espionage. He should tread very carefully.
Why are enemies of the United States allowed to own national security infrastructure?
They are allowed to be president and run for re-election too so I wouldn't hold my breath
Took longer than I thought it would for Musk to do this. Been waiting for it since he threw his little fit about starlink in Ukraine was costing him money.
Then he said he’s talked to Putin directly.
Seriously someone reign this dude in, somehow, before he really fucks shit up.
Arrest this treasonous scumbag. Slava Ukraini!
As much as I despise Musk for being a total piece of shit, this isn't treason. Technically, we aren't even allies with Ukraine. The argument could certainly be made that this works against the interests of the United States, but that alone isn't treason because it isn't a crime for citizens to oppose the US, especially when it's private property the US is being lent. Because at that time, the US hadn't signed a contract with Musk yet.
If he did this again, then it would be a breach of contract, but still wouldn't be treason. People being charged with treason is very rare, because it's a such a high bar to meet.
This guy aided the Kremlin. He's helping russians in their genocide of Ukrainian children. Fuck that pile of shit and lock him up.
Arrest when?
As if I needed another reason to hate this piece of shit.
Traitor to Democracy, at it's worst. I see he wants to join Lex Luthor at Amazon. What's the closest villian comparison for someone like Elmo?
OP linked to a site that regosted half of the original article, so here's the full one:
Espionage act?
Fuuuuuuck Elon Musk
ETA: he said he did it to avoid a nuclear attack. Everybody with two brain cells to rub together knows this is an empty threat from Putin, so either Elon is an idiot or he’s lying.
Likely both.
Not that I expect a single damn thing to happen, but isn't this the definition of treason?
Man the old geezers really think they still have absolute control over everything and don't realize the ultra wealthy they have enabled are getting and have been operating far beyond the control of the western governments.
God the fucking narcissism of those in charge to think that they still rule with perfect wisdom. I'm waiting for when these companies that the US built leave and take up residence with new hot authoritarian countries and leave misery poverty in their wake.
Singular rich people should not have this much say.