Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has called for an investigation into SpaceX CEO Elon Musk after it was revealed he declined to activate his satellite internet service Starlink for a Ukrainian attack on the Russian Black Sea fleet in Crimea.
The incident took place in September 2022 and was revealed by excerpts from a new biography of Musk. According to Musk, Ukraine made an emergency request to activate Starlink near Sevastopol, Crimea, and the clear implication was that it was for an attack on Russian warships. He denied the request over fears of escalating the war.
“Congress needs to investigate what’s happened here, and whether we have adequate tools to make sure foreign policy is conducted by the government and not by one billionaire,” Warren said on Monday.
Ukrainian officials have slammed Musk for disrupting a planned attack on Russia’s fleet. Musk said Starlink was never meant to be used for war, although his company began shipping thousands of terminals to Ukraine shortly after Russia invaded in February 2022.
At the time of the incident, SpaceX was providing the Starlink service to Ukraine on its own and was not under a contract with the US military. But since then, the Pentagon began footing the bill for Ukraine’s Starlink service and entered a contract with SpaceX, the details of which have not been disclosed.
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said Monday that the September 2022 incident raised concerns within the Pentagon about the need to be more specific when it comes to contracting services from companies like SpaceX. “If we’re going to rely upon commercial architectures or commercial systems for operational use, then we have to have some assurances that they’re going to be available,” he said.
Warren, the supposed progressive, has long been an unapologetic hawk. She likes insanely-huge “defense” budgets, too.
Now she wants Musk “investigated” for daring to place limits on the way services he was providing at his own expense were used. Because failing to go to the wall helping Ukraine commit national suicide in a hopeless American campaign to weaken Russia is a mortal sin.
In case it wasn’t already clear that the good liberals only oppose wars not incited and managed by their own leaders . . .
If we would have attacked the Russian Fleet, our a– would be grass in a nuclear way…
Except that Ukraine (or We) have been attacking the Russian fleet since the war started.
Where have you been?
Edit:
Just check the news today in what happened in Sevastopol.
Don’t worry, your ASS won’t be grass in a nuclear way.
Yes. One more landing ship AND add an attack submarine! Is Russia still winning? Hahaha. A noticible LACK of any mention of that victory for the Ukes. I wonder, is this site becoming more a place for Putin apologists? No news of that attack sub being a launching platform for hitting Ukrainian civilian targets? Hmmm…
Her one progressive idea, and it is a good one, is that large corporations shouldn’t be allowed to utterly screw the little guy. In this country that sense of fair play has her marked as a commie.
Well, to be fair, her opposition to large corporations screwing the little guy is mostly about her wanting to do the screwing herself.
Amen.
I would say to her, “what about Raytheon, etc”. They are corporations too.
😂
After all, she does represent the wonderful state of Massachusetts, the Progressive state that loves all people, including illegals until they wind up in Marrrrtha’s Vineyard. Typical hypocrites.
Yes she does like huge defence budgets. A failed domestic economy that has transformed into a militarized economy.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f938930e56ba9b35e396adaa595eb97f0ed34d8fc392b8a742c4c8046d786074.jpg
And the vast majority of those 10 are allies.
Your moniker says it all, ‘Wars R US’ it’s the one and most likely only growing industry in the U.S.S.A.
She gave me hope when she was the only democrat on the Senate Arms Service Committee to vote against the boost ($715 billion to $740 billion) to Biden’s 20-21 military budget increase. The other 12 voted in favor. So much for hope.
The committee adopted a proposal to boost the budget in a whopping 25 to 1 vote Wednesday during a closed door markup of its version of annual defense policy legislation, according to four Senate aides with knowledge of the deliberations.
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/23/senate-democrats-boost-pentagon-spending-500705
Liz Warren’s become indistinguishable for Liz Cheney at this point
The Cheney one voted 92% for Trump policies.
(indistinguishable for Liz Cheney or indistinguishable from Liz Cheney?) Can really things be that bad within American Governance. I’m not sure Warren wants the electorate to know how far into the dark side she has SLID… IS IT EVEN POSSIBLE…?????? I would have thought NOT, and I LIVE very near Massachusetts and follow political news religiously. But anything is possible, especially with these newly minted Democrat hawks who were the antiwar vanguard under Bush.
Maybe someone or some country would like to indemnify Space X against satilites destruction Russia could do if used to facilitate an attack on it’s fleet
Russia could do it whether it was used to facilitate an attack on its fleet or not.
But Russia won’t do it because Russia doesn’t want its own satellites destroyed.
I don’t know who has the better anti-satelite abilities, but I do remember that Russia or China destroyed one of their own satellites which caused the U.S. to complain about the space junk it created. Is the U.S able to seek out and destroy “hostile” satellites easily and anonymously? For that matter is Russia able to do it discreetly…??? I just don’t know where the satellite destruction game stands these days, liability concerns aside. One thing I am quite sure about is that a lot of them will be debris should a hot war occur.
It’s not a subject I keep a close eye on, but as long ago as the late 1970s or early 1980s I read an article in a scientific magazine on a Russian “killer satellite” experiment in which they blew up one of their own satellites by maneuvering another, with an explosive charge, near it. Also in the 1980s, there was apparently a similar US demonstration in which a US combat aircraft went to its maximum altitude and launched a missile at a retired US satellite, sucessfully destroying it.
There seems to be something similar to Mutual Assured Destruction vis a vis satellites — every side knows that if they start destroying satellites, their satellites will be destroyed. So they leave each others’ satellites alone.
deleted
A pea brain. A nitwit. She is both. OTOH Kendall’s comment is so — self-blind? Musk has resurrected the space program. Not NASA itself, not Boeing, not …. really anybody. So who ELSE are they going to contract with? These people are leg dead frogs whose legs twitch when stimulated by a probe. But the brain part is dead.
I was recently surprised to learn that both sides have built fake cell towers to intercept and eavesdrop on cell phone messages. So Ukraine could probably find a way to get the communications functionality it seeks for an invasion of Crimea. But that would take money, time, and extensive testing.
That would be “our money”, as Ukraine has none.
If the world is lit up by nukes, money will be worthless. The good old days of pillaging the property (and food) of others would be in vogue. “Friends”? F*ck that. Get it. Get it now! Morons in D.C. risk it. Look what happened during the pandemic. The runs on grocery stores. That was nothing.
This is all about Elon Musk‘s lawsuit against the ADL.
And to think I liked Warren during her last run. Never again! All Democrats are hawks when it’s THEIR president that started the war.
We only have 1 party in Congress, the insane bipartisan war party that will get us all killed.
From the point of view of an economist, Fascism is a lot like Capitalism, except that owners must yield decision-making to the State whenever told to do so. Warren seems to think that Musk should be required to operate his network as the State decides… even when the State is not footing the bill.
Now that the network is under contract, the Pentagon can ask him to extend coverage to Crimea. I assume they can’t order him to do it. But they can extend either a stick or a carrot if he turns down the business.
Not even as the “state” decides; she thinks business should operate as SHE decides; a completely egocentric megalomaniac.
Pretty much — I’ve written several columns on that exact subject, including this one.
Thank you.
I dunno, what sort of contract die he have with the US government? service guarantees? What exactly is their legal angle. Musk is an ass but this has been well established.
None at the time, according to the article. He was providing the service, and donated terminals, to the Ukrainians to help with their defense on his own – but drew the line at helping them attack Russian territory.
I don’t know about you, but improved Twitter and now Zelensky, the ADL, and the likes of Warren going after Musk is making him more less disgusting in my eyes. If Biden, Sanders, and AOC join in the crusade against him, I would be compelled to definitely start liking him. Who knows, even the bad taste in my mouth may disappear forever. (Sarcasm)
I can no longer access current twitter because I don’t have an account, don’t want one, so that sucks. Not an improvement.
I can’t access Twitter anymore. Jane Goodall said we can solve our problems if we reduce the Earth’s population by 90%. I ventured the opinion that, if Goodall believes in population reductioin, she should commit suicide. The Gods of Twitter disagreed with me.
Have a peppermint, NA 😉
Showboating. Smear campaign.
If there is a contract, read it. If the contract left activating portions up to Musk, he didn’t violate/breach the contract. If he did, isn’t the contract null and void? Then they can sue, reclaim the investment or part of it, and he can shut everything off, right? Lawyers?
Liz makes a big stink and pretends she’s dispatching her CSI team. I guess people haven’t been paying enough attention to her. She loves capitalism, private companies and private decisions, but not in war?
The story says the incident happened before there was a contract; so the point is moot. Musk was doing it on his own, so gets to set his own parameters. Pocahontas Warren is simply trying to be “relevant” again before her nasty shriveled up corpse withers away and dies. Nothing more evil than a 75 year old narcissist trying to leave a legacy.
Thanks for clarifying the issue.
Nothing more evil than a 75 year old narcissist trying to leave a legacy.
Indeed. Reminds me of someone.
Liz Warren speak with forked tongue!
“Congress needs to investigate what’s happened here, and whether we have adequate tools to make sure foreign policy is conducted by the government and not by one billionaire,” Warren said on Monday.
What a sweet comment! How about US foreign policy being controlled/conducted by:
– Lockheed Martin
– General Dynamics
– Boeing
– Northrop Grumman
– Raytheon
Well, that’s not “one billionaire” … that’s a whole lot of billionaires …
Guess he’s not part of that club, yet….
I know … what are you gonna do, these new money people don’t know how to act …
Except when American assets are hijacked by Neocons to make war….. Widen war, turn proxy war exitential. Perhaps she is planning on taking over when Biden goes entirely off the rails and becomes a sure loser. She has lost me though she really never had me. No chance with me now no matter what she says. Ditto on her re-election for Senator. Same for any other politico trying to transfuse life into Ukraine’s failing attempts to defeat Russia. Like trying to take some sad shelter dog to fight a big cat like a lion or tiger. These crazy Neocons are a danger to every living thing on this planet and need to lose big before they kill us all.
How dare a private citizen cut out OUR profit margin!
And what do you think the decision on starting World War 3 by attacking the Russian fleet a la Pearl Harbor would have been if it was in government hands, Liz? You might not even have been around to squeak and moan about Musk and issue press releases and letters. But sure, mug for the cameras.
Musk is now claiming that it was US sanctions that prevented him from turning on Starlink over Crimea.
Pearl Harbor was attacked before the US government supposedly knew Japan had declared war. The attack in question here was long after Russia went to war with Ukraine.
Sevastopol was also attacked overnight, damaging a Russian shipyard and two Russian warships (according to Moscow). And Crimea and the Black Sea fleet have been attacked several other times as well.
I know a fellow who retired there. An American. Has enjoyed it there. Ex-race car engineer. Quite conservative.
Just noticed I had a comment pulled with the word sh*t in it, edited by me to shite, still removed into Dante’s 6th Circle.
I think I need a break from this kindergarten. Have a nice day.
Disqus is so inconsistent with the vulgarity.
If sh*t is vulgar, based on my 80 years of contact with humans, we’re done as a race.
Preaching to the choir my friend. But I don’t think “fuck” is vulgar either.
That happens to be one of the auto filters (not one I put in, as I use the word all the time).
Editing a comment after it’s automatically filtered doesn’t magically cause it to no longer be held. It has to wait until I see it.
OK Thomas, thanks for clarifying – again – I’m getting slow 😉
“two Russian warships”
A landing ship and a submarine under repair in a dry dock both irrelevant to the TO.
The old fake Indian has had her feelings hurt because nobody pays attention to her any longer so she has to stick her nose into something she knows nothing about.
I guess “but it’s a private business” only works when the “private business” censors people the regime wants censored. When they start disobeying DC, the Beltway masters of humanity are only too happy to bring the hammer down
Thank you Liz for reinforcing my decision to never vote democratic again!
Back in 2020, when she dropped out of the race for POTUS, I made a mental note of her throwing her delegates to Biden, rather than Sanders.
There’s a lot more “faux” about her than merely being Fauxcahontas.
Musk is looking at it from a business point of view. Business would not be if the world is lit up by nukes. Zero economy, death, disease, would be.
I’d like that investigation to look into the ways that Musk’s service enabled the Ukraine War, and the ways the US DoD has begun to fund his “private” service as a way to pay for that war.
“Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive”…
djv
To think we thought Warren was progressive left?
Are there any progressive left democrats —- left? We have only two clots of brain dead Zombies at the national level, eager to bend over for every shiny new war, drooling at the prospect of more money for “defense” projects in their districts, thereby improving their chances for re-election, their only true priority.
She’s always on the warpath!!!
Warren’s just pissed because Musk is suing the ADL for $22 BILLION. THAT ain’t sumthin you’re gonna see on any MSM 🤣
Musk isn’t suing the ADL. He’s just running his yap about suing the ADL.
And I’m unaware of any “MSM” outlet that hasn’t talked about it.
Then watch the evening news, Mr. T, not a peep.
If Musk wants to sue the ADL, he can certainly afford to, and bankrupt them via attorney fees. That’d be a beautiful thang.
SUE, Elon, sue!! You’d achieve hero status in my heart and soul 😁
There are an increasing number of reports on many items we will no longer be seeing on the MSM. The MSM is whoring for Joey the fabricator, as are as a steaming clot of Democrats – and republicans.
Fine, shut it all down. Let Musk disable all the Ukrainian links and see how you like that. Be grateful you even still have a nation due, in part, to him allowing you access to Starlink at all.
1/ US citizens do not have the power to oppose US foreign policy:
a/Not by polled political opposition, which foreign policy spokespersons undemocratically dismissed, following the recent poll showing a majority of US citizens want to stop funding:
“‘If some Americans [want to stop funding] …I think it’s important to remember that if we just sit back and we let Putin win, we let him take Ukraine, where does it stop next?’ Kirby said.”
https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/09/politics/white-house-responds-cnn-poll/index.html
(Note – admittedly this polled funding opposition has so far not led to a significant anti-war movement, which would make US opinion harder to simply wave away.)
b/ And, obviously, most citizens lack the power to resist US foreign policy by refusing to pay taxes used in the US’s latest “as long as it takes” war.
2/ But Musk…Musk opposes the US’s new “endless war” foreign policy for much the same basic reasons many left wing people do:
a/ Because of the ‘endless’ deaths of young men caused by the US’s rejection of US diplomacy:
“‘Both sides should agree to a truce. Every day that passes, more Ukrainian and Russian youth die to gain and lose small pieces of land, with borders barely changing. This is not worth their lives,’ Musk added.” [article link]
b/ And because of the risks of nuclear escalation:
“[Musk was] worried the Ukrainian attack on Russian vessels in the Black Sea would provoke the Kremlin into launching a nuclear war.”
[article link]
See also: “‘If I had agreed to their request, then SpaceX would be explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation.'”
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/08/world/europe/elon-musk-ukraine-starlink-drones.html
3/ Upshot? As the billionaire owner of Starlinks, Musk has the unusual power to act to act against US foreign policy. What is lost in this self-evident observation, however, is that – like any US citizen – Musk has the right to oppose US foreign policy.
“Citizens United” in its infinite wisdom declared Space X has the same 1st Amendment rights (which concptually encompasses material assistance) as any citizen.
Good point I had not thought of.
But did Musk make this decision as an individual citizen, or as the spokesperson for the corporation-as-individual of Space X?
Does it matter? In any event there’s no evidence Musk ever made a noble decision. Everything he’s done is either to promote himself or his wealth, both cases involve enhancing his business.
Which is why I don’t think he wants to see nukes flying.
“Does it matter?”
1/ According to you, it does matter: after all, your entire post asserts it is a financially and/or personally selfish act – which, it may be inferred, voids Musk’s declared anti-war justification of any good it might otherwise have.
2/ Whereas from my pov his motives indeed do not “matter”… but for different reasons:
a/ Regardless of motive, his specific action reduced the risks of this war; and second…
b/ …well, let me pose it to you as a question: regardless of Musk’s motive, can you see no value to an anti-war movement…in a well-known business titan publicly stating views held by many anti-war folks?
“This above all is the greatest treason,
To do the right thing for the wrong reason.” (“Murder in the Cath” ??)
I do consider meaning/truth/altruism a value, and pragmatism/opportunism/narcissism/…, at best, not. Despite the seeming limited benefit, he is, after all, one of those who materially supported the Ukra-nazis, complicit in the death of tens of thousands of Russians, a war criminal.
“”This above all is the greatest treason,
To do the right thing for the wrong reason.’ (‘Murder in the Cath’ ??)”
Yea, well… TS Eliot’s fastidious judgments of the soul for fatal imperfections?…useless – and that’s at best – in practical politics, imho…
…not that – btw – Eliot would likely have had a prob w/a politics characterized by meditation on impure human action, even in his ideal monarchical order.
Corporations are people too, my friend.
Suppose Musk facilitated their explosive submarine and it blew up something that caused a reactor to melt down and contaminate thousands of acres of productive farmland.. Which impelled the Russians to destroy the starlike satellites????? Not only the damage issuento consider, but the possibility it could cause WWIII!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Air Force spokesman is full of shite, considering that the entire operation undergirding Joey’s little war is a steaming pile of it.
NATO has already lost; 467 Aircraft, 248 helicopters, 6706 UAV’s, 437 Anti Aircraft systems, 11811 tanks inc. APC’s, 1150 multiple rocket launchers, 6359 field artillery and 12958 military automotive equipment. Approx. $1 Trillion of NATO hardware.
NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg confirmed, in an interview with The Washington Post, May 9, 2023, (speaking on behalf of NATO) that the “war didn’t start in 2022”. “The war started in 2014”
This war started after the NATO violent overthrow of the sovereign government of Ukraine. What the ICC calls the Supreme International Crime.
NATO pushed the so called “Counter Offensive” to break up the Russian war of attrition which NATO was loosing badly. The so called “Counter Offensive” was a last ditch effort to shape the European battlefield in favour of NATO.
In over 3 months of the Russian SMO NATO has lost 71 thousand troops (casualties) and 8,200 pieces of equipment. Trillions have been spent in the nearly 10 years of this NATO war and according to US politicians its the best money they have ever spent. These are psychopaths, predators consuming humanity. Absolute MONSTERS.
I’m beginning to think this is all just a cover to protect Musk’s satellites. I mean, the timing of pulling out his satellites and the strike in Sevastopol was too much of a coincidence. Now they are doing this fake investigation to legitimize his position? Musk must have been informed ahead of time about an upcoming strike.
Old news. At the very onset of the ukraine war, when Ukraine asked for starlink, musk said he wouldn’t allow starlink to be used for attacks. It was also reported early on that he did just that. Everyone now just discovering this is already a year behind the curve on keeping up with things.
She too is a big disappointment.