From Jeff Childers …again

Yesterday the BBC ran a story headlined, “Ukraine War: Elon Musk’s SpaceX Firm Bars Kyiv From Using Starlink Tech for Drone Control.”

Early in the war, Musk donated thousands of Starlink satellite dishes to help Ukrainians stay connected during the war and to help coordinate humanitarian relief efforts. Apparently, and maybe predictably, the Ukraine government instead immediately co-opted the hardware and put it to use in the war. So Musk’s equipment wound up helping escalate the war, but not helping any ordinary Ukrainians.

After finding out his company had been involuntarily conscripted as an unpaid volunteer into the Ukraine war effort, Musk announced SpaceX would stop providing satellite service to Ukraine. Following fierce corporate media backlash, Musk backtracked and restored the service, but with a few conditions, like a little proviso that the free Starlink service shouldn’t be used to kill anybody.

Well, you can guess how it played out, based on your overall understanding of Ukrainian trustworthiness. Recently Musk found out that the Ukrainians were, alas, cheating on the agreement, and using their free Starlink service for targeting killer drone strikes. On Wednesday, SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell explained that Starlink technology was “never meant to be weaponized.”

So the very next day, Thursday, as you’ll recall, the federal government announced an instant investigation into Musk’s Neuralink company, for transporting dangerous pathogens. You know, to help get Musk’s head right. It remains to be seen whether Musk will back down again and let the Ukrainians weaponize his fledgling technology. Without even paying for it.

Those crazy Republicans! Whatever would give them the insane idea that the federal government has been weaponized against Americans? It’s like the federal government is stealing their bananas or something.