Elizabeth Warren Demands Probes of Elon Musk, SpaceX After Ukraine Revelations

[riversedge]

I do hope Warren is one of the Senators to meet with Musk. She takes no bull!!



Elizabeth Warren Demands Probes of Elon Musk, SpaceX After Ukraine Revelations

Warren calls on Pentagon to look into decision over attack
Musk, other tech chiefs will meet with senators on Wednesday

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-09-11/elizabeth-warren-demands-probes-of-elon-musk-spacex-after-ukraine-revelations

Senator Elizabeth : Al Drago/Bloomberg
By Steven T. Dennis
September 11, 2023 at 6:45 PM CDT

Senator Elizabeth Warren is demanding an investigation into SpaceX after Elon Musk acknowledged he had blocked Ukraine from extending the private Starlink satellite network for an attack on Russian warships near the Crimean coast.

“The 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,” the Massachusetts Democrat said Monday at the Capitol.

Musk, the chief executive officer of SpaceX, is expected to be among the technology industry chiefs to attend a closed-door summit with senators at the Capitol on Wednesday.

Warren, a member of the Armed Services Committee, said she also wants the Defense Department to look into its contractual relationship with the company........................

[gab13by13]

1. Yeah, the Senate needs to pick up the pace,

[Fiendish Thingy]

2. C'mon Chuck, what are you waiting for? Nt

[brush]

3. Good. Warren is on it. Musk's activities with Starlink, Putin consultation...

and it being switched off when Ukraine launched drone attacks against Russian warships seems borderline treason as he's an American citizen giving aid and comfort to an enemy during a war — although we are technically not at War with Russia, just actively supporting Ukraine which is at war with Russia.

Musk needs to be investigated as he's playing geopolitics affecting a war on his own as a private citizen, which of course should never be allowed as that's the province of nation-state governments.

[FakeNoose]

4. Is Elon Musk in Pootie's pocket?

The whole thing stinks! I hope Senator Warren gets to the bottom of it.

[Liberty Belle]

5. Musk's biographer has backpedaled/clarified this claim:

Starlink was never on in that area, so Musk didn't disable it. But he did refuse to turn it on when asked by Ukraine, apparently.

Walter Isaacson
@WalterIsaacson
To clarify on the Starlink issue: the Ukrainians THOUGHT coverage was enabled all the way to Crimea, but it was not. They asked Musk to enable it for their drone sub attack on the Russian fleet. Musk did not enable it, because he thought, probably correctly, that would cause a major war.

Link to tweet

?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1700342242290901361%7Ctwgr%5E57e429d34dc438c8dc16c7fd86ba1e06f78ab197%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnbc.com%2F2023%2F09%2F09%2Felon-musk-biographer-moves-to-clarify-details-on-ukraine-starlink.html

I despise Musk but can see where he was put between a rock and a hard place on this. The Pentagon and Congress need to clarify what is or isn't appropriate for American tech companies to do when asked to enable a military strike against a foreign power.

[bucolic_frolic]

6. Tesla was built on hundreds of millions in Federal loans

Musk is dismantling X (Twitter) for libertarian ends, and Space-X is used for his personal foreign policy?

Federal and state governments have given or loaned Billions to Musk. Billions. Like 4.5 Billion dollars by some counts.

https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-list-government-subsidies-tesla-billions-spacex-solarcity-2021-12

Elon Musk's companies have received billions in government subsidies over the last two decades.
In 2021, Musk has opposed higher taxes for the rich, and said the government shouldn't control "capital."
He recently said he opposes government subsidies. One of his companies accepted them as recently as April.

The richest person in the world says he doesn't want any help from the US government, but his companies have actually gotten billions of dollars worth.

Like many other wealthy Americans, Musk has spoken out against a proposed "billionaires' tax" from Sen. Ron Wyden, writing on Twitter in October that "eventually, they run out of other people's money, and then they come for you."

More recently, he spoke out against government subsidies and tax incentives for US businesses. In a recent interview with TIME, he said the government was not a good "steward of capital."

And at a Wall Street Journal summit this month, Musk said the government should "just delete" all subsidies from the $1 trillion infrastructure bill President Joe Biden recently signed into law. Biden's bill included $7.5 billion for electric vehicle charging infrastructure, which would seem to help one of Musk's companies, Tesla Motors.

[Grins]

7. Gee. Will Matt Taibbi be a character witness?

And after Jordan's committee tried to portray Elon as a victim. Turns out, like Trump, he's just another Russian mole.

[prodigitalson]

8. this is one of the most outrageous things I have ever heard of

and I live in some pretty outrageous times

[republianmushroom]

9. Do it, just do it.