I get that there is some regulations regarding ITAR, but the way the messaging of this was handled is extremely suspicious. Additionally if Musk is potentially talking to Putin and other Russians,...
I get that there is some regulations regarding ITAR, but the way the messaging of this was handled is extremely suspicious. Additionally if Musk is potentially talking to Putin and other Russians, it just serves as an easy cover for his half-assed attempt at humanitarian aid.
When we say "Never again" I would hope it would be taken earnestly. What Russia is doing in Ukraine is genocidal. Children are being kidnapped and sent to Russia for assimilation, mass graves and torture rooms have been found in liberated cities, Russian soldiers are raping women and children, hospitals and other civilian areas are being targeted, negotiated upon peace corridors were shot upon, and more. When you see those images and read survivor stories, it's unconsciousiable to act in a manner that Musk has. There are no excuses and I'm sure the DOD would have worked out an exception if he was as truly as passionate about providing aid to Ukraine as he is to snuggling up to Putin.
There is one easy answer to establishing peace in this war: Russia leaves. Starlink outages started to be reported after Ukranian officials criticized Musk's tweets of pushing for peace while allowing Russia to keep the stolen territory from Ukraine. So no, a man who clearly doesn't care about the FTC chasing him for stock manipulation certainly doesn't care about ITAR with how flippant he acts. He is a narcissistic capitalist who is flippant about innocent lives being lost and will cozy up next to whoever strokes his ego best.
He keeps saying it was never switched on rather than him proactively making the effort to switch it off. Is there any objective breakdown of the continuity and technical analysis of the situation?...
He keeps saying it was never switched on rather than him proactively making the effort to switch it off. Is there any objective breakdown of the continuity and technical analysis of the situation?
I've read excuses ranging from it was geofenced and he simply refused to waive that to it was to prevent nuclear war. Half the explanations offer a rationale after the fact despite still denying doing anything actively to contribute to the situation. Its sus af
I suspect there's some geopolitical and economic factors driving this situation, I'm sure its far more complex than it appears prima facie, but that's not helped when the guy's biographer is offering a different story than the way its unfolding in the news cycle and despite his firm denials to the contrary
Let me preface this first that what I'm about to share is a bit out there and is a very online sounding thing. I joined Twitter around the beginning of the invasion due to wanting to connect with...
Let me preface this first that what I'm about to share is a bit out there and is a very online sounding thing.
I joined Twitter around the beginning of the invasion due to wanting to connect with an Ukrainian cookbook author I enjoy, but to also learn more about Ukraine and the situation as I was attempting to learn the language. I followed several Ukrainian journalists, government officials, and other tangentially related folks due to the wealth of stuff they were sharing. As I was participating in these circles, I somehow got wrapped up into NAFO which for lack of better terms was a meme army that combatted Russian Misinformation on Twitter by playing off the name.of NATO. When dealing with those who pushed Russian talking points, there was never any valuable conversation to be had. So to counter them, it was a method of drowning out their awful points with straight-up "shitposting" in addition to mass reporting problematic Tweets. Wagner Group, Russian Embassies, Russian political talking heads, and more all had Twitter accounts pushing propaganda. So in return the Fella Army that I participated in would fill these posts with nothing but Shiba memes mocking the incompetency of the Russian military.
It was honestly fun and exposed me to so many cool people who I got to interact with! I made a meme and had Ukrainian War journalists corresponding and joking with me while also having others follow my Ukrainian cooking adventures. It's a community that I mourn with Musk's takeover of Twitter, and one I left when he took over things.
Prior to his takeover, I got to see the Twitter Drama that unfolded with him and his Tweets. Memory is subjective and it's been a while, but there's several things I recall in this time-line. I remember him announcing that Starlink was provided to Ukrainians and was widely being celebrated for reconnecting families. It was "On" at this point and there was a lot of praise from Ukrainian officials for his help. The narrative started to change around the time of this outage, maybe right before, but it all started when Musk started posting some rather disingenuous polls regarding the outcome of the war with all of the options being Pro-Kremlin.
1.That the Ukrainian territory of Crimea, which Russia annexed by force in 2014, be permanently given to Russia and guaranteed a permanent water supply.
2. That the four regions of eastern Ukraine where Russia held sham referendums last month before illegally annexing the land be put to new referendums, this time organized by the United Nations.
3. That Ukraine should be forced to remain "neutral," accomplishing the long-term Kremlin goal of barring Ukraine from joining the NATO defensive alliance.
I got to see this unfold live on Twitter and of course Ukrainians were very upset that he would even propose such offerings as their people are literally being genocided. Ukraine's German Ambassador at the time, Andrij Melnyk, even Tweeted back:
Fuck off is my very diplomatic reply to you.
Musk continued to double-down on these nefarious polls and he honestly came across like a teenage boy on Xbox. It was very immature and ignorant to the suffering ongoing and I very much feel he is a man driven by who can stroke his ego the most. He got off on the Ukrainian's praising his "gift" of Starlink, but he also enjoys the ego stroking from Putin. I Honestly think he was trying to milk this praise fellaciato from both sides as long as he could, but then the Ukrainians utilized his so called offering into a tool against the Russians.
Note: I accidentally hit post before I finished typing this up, so I have added my finishing thoughts.
I think that might be a necessaey counter-weight to all the horseshit Russian propoganda that right-wing/conservative folks are eating up currently. I don't see why literally every other country...
I think that might be a necessaey counter-weight to all the horseshit Russian propoganda that right-wing/conservative folks are eating up currently. I don't see why literally every other country can't contribute their own "troll army" to help ameliorate this issue, or hell, even cutting Russia off from the internet entirely (if thats even possible)
It works well when the social media sites in question actually take action on reported misinformation. Prior to Musk taking over Twitter, their reporting system wasn't too bad although some the...
It works well when the social media sites in question actually take action on reported misinformation. Prior to Musk taking over Twitter, their reporting system wasn't too bad although some the larger government accounts were just impossible to bring down. I do believe there was some success in reporting Wagner Recruitment Tweets and actual removal of Tweets from Russian Embassies that attempted to spread misinformation on mass graves. If a Fella saw something nefarious all they had to do was post with the hashtag of NAFO Article 5, and the Shiba Army would arrive en mass! Now that Musk is at the helm, those systems are essentially broken and Russian sympathizers get promoted into the feed.
A common theme encountered was something along the lines that we need to seek peace no matter what because Russia will nuke us all. When trying to counter these points that type of action is essentially rewarding genocidal behavior, will only encourage these acts to be more common place, and that these nuclear threats are all bark and no bite; you would literally get nowhere in compromise. One individual who I believe wrote for Guardian who pushed these talking points was tip-toeing dangerously into Holocaust Denial and Musk would even jump into those Twitter threads!
While this was a more so organic formation of a Troll Army bolstered by massive fundraising effort for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, I honestly don't know how that can be replicated into a more formal methodology. It was oddly unifying to see Crypto-Bros who I would normally disagree with backing me up when calling out Russian talking points or having renowned war correspondents sharing my silly memes.
Musk lies, blatantly and constantly. (I could type out a litany of proof, but there's no point unless someone actually disagrees with that statement in the first place. Feel free to respond if you...
He keeps saying it was never switched on rather than him proactively making the effort to switch it off.
Musk lies, blatantly and constantly. (I could type out a litany of proof, but there's no point unless someone actually disagrees with that statement in the first place. Feel free to respond if you want a discussion on Musk's claims and the substance thereof.) It's worth assuming that literally everything he says is a self-serving lie until proven otherwise.
Oh, I'm 100% aware of that. I'm just trying to collaboratively piece together what the actual narrative is and where various interests are incentivized to distort it and to be conscious of the...
Oh, I'm 100% aware of that. I'm just trying to collaboratively piece together what the actual narrative is and where various interests are incentivized to distort it and to be conscious of the departures in fact.
This article seems to be misleading... Starlink terminals were being mounted on drones to provide guidance. This would seem to make Starlink an active weapons guidance system, which would fall...
This article seems to be misleading... Starlink terminals were being mounted on drones to provide guidance. This would seem to make Starlink an active weapons guidance system, which would fall under ITAR restrictions and hamper SpaceX's entire satellite internet business. They could be facing sanctions, export restrictions, and serious investigations/charges, so they disabled the Starlink terminals in that role.
Where the article states:
You’re in this war because you’re literally a defence contractor
Starlink was not (at the time) a military product. That has changed with the announcement of Starshield, as SpaceX clearly learned they need to put a line in the sand regarding commercial-defense distinctions for their products.
Marina Hyde The tech deity reportedly shut down his Starlink system to foil a Ukrainian attack. Is he the guiding force we need right now? Starlink So! Very! Cool! Blackout Musk's worldview...
Marina Hyde
The tech deity reportedly shut down his Starlink system to foil a Ukrainian attack. Is he the guiding force we need right now? Starlink
For now, it’s time to take another turn around the block with Phoney Stark, as Musk’s biographer Walter Isaacson reveals that the edgelord magnate (and edgelord magnet) ordered his engineers to switch off the Starlink satellite communications network during a surprise attack on the Russian fleet in Crimea last year.
Or to “disrupt” the attack, as CNN puts it, (still clinging embarrassingly to the preferred Silicon Valley argot that surely ought to have been discredited once its boy kings started becoming more powerful than many of the world’s actual countries) I can’t help feeling that the benefit-of-the-doubt era with these guys ought to have officially ended back when Y2K fashion was just fashion.
So! Very! Cool!
Yet until very recently, Musk was still being breathlessly judged a net good to humanity, what with his electric cars and his hyperloops and the fact he once smoked a joint on a podcast. So! Very! Cool! Elon was endlessly covered by the media as a kind of fascinating, eccentric inventor, as opposed to someone with a vast amount of power who should be held to account accordingly. Just as it was with Mark Zuckerberg before him, by the time people realised a lot of what was happening, it was rather too late.
Blackout
Anyway, back to this strategic Starlink blackout, which was apparently prefaced by Elon wailing to his biographer: “How am I in this war?” The question appears to have been rhetorical, but demands an alternative answer to the one towards which Musk was apparently gesturing (he followed up by explaining that Starlink was “so people can watch Netflix and chill and get online for school and do good peaceful things, not drone strikes”). You’re in this war because you’re literally a defence contractor – just as you’re in the news this week for demonising the Jewish Anti-Defamation League (ADL) because you’re literally a media mogul.
Instead of accepting the complexities of the consequences of his own actions, Musk seems to have simply buzzed in on the answer to that age-old question: how can a just tech god permit suffering?
The Ukrainian drones were thus stopped in their tracks, while the Russian fleet remained unharmed and able to launch future attacks itself. Musk himself returned to other based-deity pursuits, such as enabling the dissemination of Moscow propaganda and Twitter-polling what should happen to Ukraine.
Musk's worldview
It’s not that Musk doesn’t have a consistent worldview so much as he doesn’t even have consistency. Barely a week goes by without him making threats and failing to follow through. By now it should be clear that Musk isn’t going to have a cage fight with Zuckerberg. He isn’t going to sue the ADL.
He probably wasn’t even really going to buy X (formerly Twitter), and only ended up going through with it because the courts forced him to. He just says any old stuff for attention or a laugh, or because he can.
The key question is whether someone who just says any old stuff for attention or a laugh or because he can should have quite this much supra-democratic power?
Fanboys
Alas, this is not a question being asked by Elon’s fanboys, that whole heaving army of betas out there defending him minute by minute on his own platform, in the hope that he sees their posts and perhaps … what? “likes” them? Oh man. It’s too poignant.
The second this latest story about the Starlink shutdown broke, you couldn’t move on X for Muskovites suggesting that if Ukraine doesn’t like the deal it signed up to, it can terminate its contract and sign up to another service.
Please let’s put much, much more of our future security in the hands of people who treat war and the fallout from an unsolicited invasion like a broadband contract.
Super- what?!
Ultimately, it remains one of the more pathetic tragedies of our age that Musk is seen as a superhero analogue – but perhaps also an inevitable one, given that superheroes connote institutional failure. After all, if society and its institutions were working as they should be, we wouldn’t need them.
This is certainly the mood that Musk likes to play into, forever fanning the sense that the world and its problems are too hard to manage for everyone from ordinary people to police chiefs to politicians and supranational bodies. Only recently, he was speaking tellingly of himself as Earth’s “other option” to Mark Zuckerberg. Yes, have no fear, because Elon’s here. Until – as the Ukrainians seem to have discovered at something of a crucial moment – he suddenly isn’t.
I find it interesting that they call "disrupt" Silicon Valley slang when it is, indeed, the proper military term for what Musk did. Destroy, disrupt, degrade, deny, or deceive.
I find it interesting that they call "disrupt" Silicon Valley slang when it is, indeed, the proper military term for what Musk did. Destroy, disrupt, degrade, deny, or deceive.
Musk thwarted U.S. policy, there should be some sort of penalty for that. Perhaps Starlink should be nationalized. Regardless, I don't believe Musk's stated reason. Money is involved somewhere for...
Musk thwarted U.S. policy, there should be some sort of penalty for that.
Perhaps Starlink should be nationalized.
Regardless, I don't believe Musk's stated reason. Money is involved somewhere for him.
Much of this is a rehashing of old drama. There's been a US government contract in place with Starlink to provide coverage over Ukraine since mid-summer that isn't subject to Starlink/Musk oversight.
Much of this is a rehashing of old drama. There's been a US government contract in place with Starlink to provide coverage over Ukraine since mid-summer that isn't subject to Starlink/Musk oversight.
Starlink shouldn't be nationalized, it's critically dependent on new investor money because it's a fundamentally unprofitable company. It's also wrecking astronomy and no govt would want the...
Starlink shouldn't be nationalized, it's critically dependent on new investor money because it's a fundamentally unprofitable company. It's also wrecking astronomy and no govt would want the political blowback from that.
A govt buyout would probably be Starlink's best bet for avoiding future bankruptcy, though, so if we wait a while it could be fairly easy.
There doesn’t seem to be any news in this article? Update: here's an actual news article. Ukraine is furious with Elon Musk for thwarting an attack on Russia's navy (NBC News)
There doesn’t seem to be any news in this article?
Not gonna lie, the image of Musk behind bars conducting a Twitter—sorry, X—poll about whether its fair his companies were nationalized and all he got was this orange t-shirt, really tickles me
Not gonna lie, the image of Musk behind bars conducting a Twitter—sorry, X—poll about whether its fair his companies were nationalized and all he got was this orange t-shirt, really tickles me
There is a 0% chance that that happens, even if technically they have the legal power to do so. The US government hasn't nationalised a company since the time of the railroads. In the financial...
There is a 0% chance that that happens, even if technically they have the legal power to do so. The US government hasn't nationalised a company since the time of the railroads. In the financial crisis, they tried to sell of their stakes ASAP. Further, SpaceX is still a startup which could very easily collapse due to how much their current spending is. This would not be something the DoD wants, because SpaceX are currently the only people who can launch their satellites into space until Vulcan/New Glenn, and even then, those rockets are already significantly back-ordered and with low capacity. Starlink has been integral in Ukraine, and the US government wouldn't risk destroying it just to own Musk and fulfill the wild fantasies of twitter leftists.
SpaceX is not a startup. They might not make a profit, but: They’ve been launching rockets for like 15 years, have 4.6 billion in revenue and 12k employees.
SpaceX is still a startup which could very easily collapse due to how much their current spending is.
SpaceX is not a startup. They might not make a profit, but: They’ve been launching rockets for like 15 years, have 4.6 billion in revenue and 12k employees.
Musk can't be prosecuted for his Starlink crap, because at the time he didn't have a DoD contract in place - they started using Starlink in Ukraine before they wrote the contract, on the basis of...
Musk can't be prosecuted for his Starlink crap, because at the time he didn't have a DoD contract in place - they started using Starlink in Ukraine before they wrote the contract, on the basis of trust. This isn't unreasonable for normal companies who have entire departments whose sole job is maintaining good ongoing relations with the DoD, and rapid response to unexpected military situations often outstrip the speed of lawyers; the problem here is that they were dealing with Musk.
Once the contract is in place (I think it already is BTW, but I'd have to check), Musk won't pull this sort of stunt because he literally can't.
I'd say a few rental law lawyers and labor lawyers might want to have a word because I seem to recall Musk signing a few contracts and then failing to adhere to them. The only thing that he has...
Once the contract is in place (I think it already is BTW, but I'd have to check), Musk won't pull this sort of stunt because he literally can't.
I'd say a few rental law lawyers and labor lawyers might want to have a word because I seem to recall Musk signing a few contracts and then failing to adhere to them.
The only thing that he has been forced to do so far is actualy go through and purchase Twitter and we all saw how much he fought that and what the results of that were..
I'm not saying Musk won't welch on a contract; I'm saying that Musk won't welch on a contract with the DoD. There's a big legal difference between refusing to buy a company and refusing to provide...
I'm not saying Musk won't welch on a contract; I'm saying that Musk won't welch on a contract with the DoD. There's a big legal difference between refusing to buy a company and refusing to provide promised critical military services that literal lives depend on.
I get that there is some regulations regarding ITAR, but the way the messaging of this was handled is extremely suspicious. Additionally if Musk is potentially talking to Putin and other Russians, it just serves as an easy cover for his half-assed attempt at humanitarian aid.
When we say "Never again" I would hope it would be taken earnestly. What Russia is doing in Ukraine is genocidal. Children are being kidnapped and sent to Russia for assimilation, mass graves and torture rooms have been found in liberated cities, Russian soldiers are raping women and children, hospitals and other civilian areas are being targeted, negotiated upon peace corridors were shot upon, and more. When you see those images and read survivor stories, it's unconsciousiable to act in a manner that Musk has. There are no excuses and I'm sure the DOD would have worked out an exception if he was as truly as passionate about providing aid to Ukraine as he is to snuggling up to Putin.
There is one easy answer to establishing peace in this war: Russia leaves. Starlink outages started to be reported after Ukranian officials criticized Musk's tweets of pushing for peace while allowing Russia to keep the stolen territory from Ukraine. So no, a man who clearly doesn't care about the FTC chasing him for stock manipulation certainly doesn't care about ITAR with how flippant he acts. He is a narcissistic capitalist who is flippant about innocent lives being lost and will cozy up next to whoever strokes his ego best.
He keeps saying it was never switched on rather than him proactively making the effort to switch it off. Is there any objective breakdown of the continuity and technical analysis of the situation?
I've read excuses ranging from it was geofenced and he simply refused to waive that to it was to prevent nuclear war. Half the explanations offer a rationale after the fact despite still denying doing anything actively to contribute to the situation. Its sus af
I suspect there's some geopolitical and economic factors driving this situation, I'm sure its far more complex than it appears prima facie, but that's not helped when the guy's biographer is offering a different story than the way its unfolding in the news cycle and despite his firm denials to the contrary
Let me preface this first that what I'm about to share is a bit out there and is a very online sounding thing.
I joined Twitter around the beginning of the invasion due to wanting to connect with an Ukrainian cookbook author I enjoy, but to also learn more about Ukraine and the situation as I was attempting to learn the language. I followed several Ukrainian journalists, government officials, and other tangentially related folks due to the wealth of stuff they were sharing. As I was participating in these circles, I somehow got wrapped up into NAFO which for lack of better terms was a meme army that combatted Russian Misinformation on Twitter by playing off the name.of NATO. When dealing with those who pushed Russian talking points, there was never any valuable conversation to be had. So to counter them, it was a method of drowning out their awful points with straight-up "shitposting" in addition to mass reporting problematic Tweets. Wagner Group, Russian Embassies, Russian political talking heads, and more all had Twitter accounts pushing propaganda. So in return the Fella Army that I participated in would fill these posts with nothing but Shiba memes mocking the incompetency of the Russian military.
It was honestly fun and exposed me to so many cool people who I got to interact with! I made a meme and had Ukrainian War journalists corresponding and joking with me while also having others follow my Ukrainian cooking adventures. It's a community that I mourn with Musk's takeover of Twitter, and one I left when he took over things.
Prior to his takeover, I got to see the Twitter Drama that unfolded with him and his Tweets. Memory is subjective and it's been a while, but there's several things I recall in this time-line. I remember him announcing that Starlink was provided to Ukrainians and was widely being celebrated for reconnecting families. It was "On" at this point and there was a lot of praise from Ukrainian officials for his help. The narrative started to change around the time of this outage, maybe right before, but it all started when Musk started posting some rather disingenuous polls regarding the outcome of the war with all of the options being Pro-Kremlin.
I got to see this unfold live on Twitter and of course Ukrainians were very upset that he would even propose such offerings as their people are literally being genocided. Ukraine's German Ambassador at the time, Andrij Melnyk, even Tweeted back:
Musk continued to double-down on these nefarious polls and he honestly came across like a teenage boy on Xbox. It was very immature and ignorant to the suffering ongoing and I very much feel he is a man driven by who can stroke his ego the most. He got off on the Ukrainian's praising his "gift" of Starlink, but he also enjoys the ego stroking from Putin. I Honestly think he was trying to milk this praise fellaciato from both sides as long as he could, but then the Ukrainians utilized his so called offering into a tool against the Russians.
Note: I accidentally hit post before I finished typing this up, so I have added my finishing thoughts.
I think that might be a necessaey counter-weight to all the horseshit Russian propoganda that right-wing/conservative folks are eating up currently. I don't see why literally every other country can't contribute their own "troll army" to help ameliorate this issue, or hell, even cutting Russia off from the internet entirely (if thats even possible)
It works well when the social media sites in question actually take action on reported misinformation. Prior to Musk taking over Twitter, their reporting system wasn't too bad although some the larger government accounts were just impossible to bring down. I do believe there was some success in reporting Wagner Recruitment Tweets and actual removal of Tweets from Russian Embassies that attempted to spread misinformation on mass graves. If a Fella saw something nefarious all they had to do was post with the hashtag of NAFO Article 5, and the Shiba Army would arrive en mass! Now that Musk is at the helm, those systems are essentially broken and Russian sympathizers get promoted into the feed.
A common theme encountered was something along the lines that we need to seek peace no matter what because Russia will nuke us all. When trying to counter these points that type of action is essentially rewarding genocidal behavior, will only encourage these acts to be more common place, and that these nuclear threats are all bark and no bite; you would literally get nowhere in compromise. One individual who I believe wrote for Guardian who pushed these talking points was tip-toeing dangerously into Holocaust Denial and Musk would even jump into those Twitter threads!
While this was a more so organic formation of a Troll Army bolstered by massive fundraising effort for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, I honestly don't know how that can be replicated into a more formal methodology. It was oddly unifying to see Crypto-Bros who I would normally disagree with backing me up when calling out Russian talking points or having renowned war correspondents sharing my silly memes.
Musk lies, blatantly and constantly. (I could type out a litany of proof, but there's no point unless someone actually disagrees with that statement in the first place. Feel free to respond if you want a discussion on Musk's claims and the substance thereof.) It's worth assuming that literally everything he says is a self-serving lie until proven otherwise.
Oh, I'm 100% aware of that. I'm just trying to collaboratively piece together what the actual narrative is and where various interests are incentivized to distort it and to be conscious of the departures in fact.
This article seems to be misleading... Starlink terminals were being mounted on drones to provide guidance. This would seem to make Starlink an active weapons guidance system, which would fall under ITAR restrictions and hamper SpaceX's entire satellite internet business. They could be facing sanctions, export restrictions, and serious investigations/charges, so they disabled the Starlink terminals in that role.
Where the article states:
Starlink was not (at the time) a military product. That has changed with the announcement of Starshield, as SpaceX clearly learned they need to put a line in the sand regarding commercial-defense distinctions for their products.
Marina Hyde
The tech deity reportedly shut down his Starlink system to foil a Ukrainian attack. Is he the guiding force we need right now?
Starlink
So! Very! Cool!
Blackout
Musk's worldview
Fanboys
Super- what?!
I find it interesting that they call "disrupt" Silicon Valley slang when it is, indeed, the proper military term for what Musk did. Destroy, disrupt, degrade, deny, or deceive.
Musk thwarted U.S. policy, there should be some sort of penalty for that.
Perhaps Starlink should be nationalized.
Regardless, I don't believe Musk's stated reason. Money is involved somewhere for him.
Much of this is a rehashing of old drama. There's been a US government contract in place with Starlink to provide coverage over Ukraine since mid-summer that isn't subject to Starlink/Musk oversight.
It can be done and it's perfectly legal. I hope Biden has the brains to be discussing this with the DoD right this minute.
Starlink shouldn't be nationalized, it's critically dependent on new investor money because it's a fundamentally unprofitable company. It's also wrecking astronomy and no govt would want the political blowback from that.
A govt buyout would probably be Starlink's best bet for avoiding future bankruptcy, though, so if we wait a while it could be fairly easy.
There doesn’t seem to be any news in this article?
Update: here's an actual news article.
Ukraine is furious with Elon Musk for thwarting an attack on Russia's navy (NBC News)
SpaceX and Starlink are important parts of the military-industrial complex these days. It's not as straightforward as you suggest.
Not gonna lie, the image of Musk behind bars conducting a Twitter—sorry, X—poll about whether its fair his companies were nationalized and all he got was this orange t-shirt, really tickles me
There is a 0% chance that that happens, even if technically they have the legal power to do so. The US government hasn't nationalised a company since the time of the railroads. In the financial crisis, they tried to sell of their stakes ASAP. Further, SpaceX is still a startup which could very easily collapse due to how much their current spending is. This would not be something the DoD wants, because SpaceX are currently the only people who can launch their satellites into space until Vulcan/New Glenn, and even then, those rockets are already significantly back-ordered and with low capacity. Starlink has been integral in Ukraine, and the US government wouldn't risk destroying it just to own Musk and fulfill the wild fantasies of twitter leftists.
SpaceX is not a startup. They might not make a profit, but: They’ve been launching rockets for like 15 years, have 4.6 billion in revenue and 12k employees.
Musk can't be prosecuted for his Starlink crap, because at the time he didn't have a DoD contract in place - they started using Starlink in Ukraine before they wrote the contract, on the basis of trust. This isn't unreasonable for normal companies who have entire departments whose sole job is maintaining good ongoing relations with the DoD, and rapid response to unexpected military situations often outstrip the speed of lawyers; the problem here is that they were dealing with Musk.
Once the contract is in place (I think it already is BTW, but I'd have to check), Musk won't pull this sort of stunt because he literally can't.
I'd say a few rental law lawyers and labor lawyers might want to have a word because I seem to recall Musk signing a few contracts and then failing to adhere to them.
The only thing that he has been forced to do so far is actualy go through and purchase Twitter and we all saw how much he fought that and what the results of that were..
I'm not saying Musk won't welch on a contract; I'm saying that Musk won't welch on a contract with the DoD. There's a big legal difference between refusing to buy a company and refusing to provide promised critical military services that literal lives depend on.