I want to address a related point to the one I raised in this thread. A couple years ago the Times did a really strong package about the power of SpaceX. Not only is SpaceX. Not only is it now one if not the preemptive orbital delivery company in the world it also has a fleet of ...
FWIW - The Australian government has been like a deer in the headlights under the emerging threat from the east but are going significantly expand the government owned broadband network to counter Starlink
www.infrastructure.gov.au/department/m...
I’m so old I remember when public utilities were regulated monopolies
I remember when they broke AT&T up. And AT&T was not even close to the size and scope of the conglomerates we have now
ha! don’t I know this story all too well ☎️ straight outta undergrad in 1983 I took a job with “american radiotelephone services” 📟 9 mos later 1/84 AT&T was divested opening the door for commercialization of CELLULAR … went from two test licenses in balto-wash and chicago to 💥 a THING
2/ satellites so large that according to that Times article more than half the functional satellites in earth orbit today are owned by SpaceX, and thus under the control of Elon Musk. That's the basis of Starlink. Again, half the functioning satellites in orbit are under the control ...
3/ of one man. Must built SpaceX on US govt subsidies and contracts, much as he built Tesla, on the back of subsidies to grow the EV industry. But those are the rules the US government set up. He played by them. Under our system he gets the benefit of those decisions and ...
But now in his new role he is interfering with departments that are working on his space program, and his internet service as well. Completely against government regulations!
4/ that good fortune. However, the US government has many laws that make clear that if and when a government contractors decisions threaten the national security of the United States that things change. In the case of SpaceX, he gets the profits. But there are limits on where the ...
5/ decisions are his. Just to make the obvious point, Musk couldn't just say okay I'm only going to launch Chinese military satellites. Too bad, Pentagon, what I say goes. Private company, etc. That's not how it works. And seldom invoked US is pretty clear on that. Needless to say...
6/ this isn't a question most military contractors have any interest in testing. US policy, for better or worse, provides plenty of markets where they can sell their weapons. But already in the early Biden years Musk was starting to run what amounted to his own ...
7/ foreign policy. This came out early in the Ukraine War when it emerged that Musk was running his own arrangements with Vladimir Putin which looked very much like it was running counter to US foreign policy which at the time was Biden's to make. It also goes without saying ...
8/ that no other federal contractor and no one with a highly level clearance could be having unreported discussions and bargains with an adversary foreign state. Here's where we get back to the question of over-mighty subjects. Musk has vast wealth and control over ...
9/ core national security technologies which give him the ability, along with his wealth, to rival the power of the US on the foreign policy stage. Here's where the acquisition of Twitter becomes a much bigger deal and a much kind of deal than many I think realize. Musk has this overmighty ...
Cc @whstancil.bsky.social
10/ power but the US govt *in extremis* has laws and powers to curtail that power. But when Musk took personal control of one of the country's most powerful and pervasive communications mediums AND began using his limitless money in the political real he made himself essentially too ...
This all should never have been allowed and all pols are to blame!
Refresh my memory—has any non-governmental entity ever made legal use of guillotines? (Sorry—couldn’t help the Dark humor…)
11/ big to touch. You can see it in his vast grip on US politics and now also in the UK and now Germany. Whether he's able to shift the result of the German general election we'll see. But he's made it quite clear that there are vast costs to any nation-state which challenges him.
Trump II was just a Trojan horse for the Ketamine King to install himself
Elon Musk’s wealth is very dependent on an overvalued Tesla. It would be helpful to democracies if Tesla’s valuation declines. He is doing his best to make the brand toxic.
Great thread. Both are — the over mighty and this. We are in uncharted waters.
Elon purchased the presidency for Felon and uses his wealth and Felon's political power to bend US and Europe to his will. Once he starts buying our judges (think Thomas and Cannon) all bets are off
I get what youre saying but the only real reason elon musk has the power he apparently has is that the congress has tolerated him and continues to do so. Were that to change, musks power would be shown for the facile thing it really is. The question is, will that happen? And it's scary to wonder.
It’s amazing to me how this guy started out as a champion of our possible Green future and has become a caricature of a Bond villain.
Biden could have done something.
Next Pres should start shifting launches to others, destroying Space X market value, and then seize it by eminent domain
How did NASA ever allow a private company to corner the space market?
NASA get hamstrung by people in Congress wanting their states to benefit from space projects and then those same people turn around and argue it's inefficient and the free market will do a better job
NASA doesn't control their budget. Fascists in our government have been trying to privatize anything that's publicly owned for decades.
One thing to note - all those Falcon 9 rockets come out of a factory in Hawthorne, California and are shipped around the country by truck. The Starklink satellites are made in a Redmond, Washington facility. What happens to those facilities in a post constitutional world?
The failure of the Biden administration to crush Musk is its worst.
Josh, please amplify this: bsky.app/profile/lori...
I have been trying to get his attention since yesterday. Journalists with big platforms need to scan their replies once in a while instead of staying in the bubble that helped get us here.
Thanks so much for exposing that letter. I've copied it to my congressman's office (Obernolte R23) who sits on the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.
Thank you!
Our very own Bond Villain
We may need to reach out to the Brits to see if they could lend us Bond for one last mission
Hopefully MI6 is already on the job.
Yeah, even I - a non-academic - was alarmed by how powerful the US was allowing/enabling him to become. Just an absolute security failure.
We let him get himself in a position with Starlink where the Russians can threaten him, so he's going to straddle the fence if for no other reason than his own personal survival. Arguably we should have stripped him of both Starlink and Space X for national security once the Putin hedge reveal.
The problem with the modern over mighty is their might and risk can easily cross borders and so irrespective of how it starts they can find themselves in a position of betraying the US to save their own globally exposed skin.
Yes AND there is no choice is there. We will suffer either way....let's choose the bitter but shorter pill...we will spare generations at least.
Stand up!! He can’t control all 7 billion of us.
thank you for clarifying a lot on the SpaceX/Starlink front
Also note: a rocket and an ICBM are basically two different versions of the same thing. We're basically letting a private citizen build his own Ballistic Missile fleet. How soon before Elon decides he "deserves" nukes to play with?
So-called 'Starship' is so big (100-150 metric tons) that even just filled with ordinary explosives, it could still pack a NASTY payload.
I mean, it even LOOKS like an updated V2
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Josh, any thoughts on how or to what degree this would counter Neil Abramson's argument that Trump is ultimately more in control than Musk?
Neil Abrams, sorry. His recent post on that: bsky.app/profile/neil...
Back when he first acceded to Putin to limit Ukraine access as well as not deploy in Taiwan … Starlink should have been nationalized b
The significant error in letting billionaires & corporations control your communications. They inherently have an interest in controlling all the narrative and history. Your freedom is a burden. Hence the attack Ed, libraries, archives, print media, local media...
The error is allowing there to be billionaires, full stop.
Lets nationalize it
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Over mighty subjects is a great angle to use (at least for me ad I was schooled as a medievalist)