As @gilliantett asks “To what degree will US politicians permit a capricious billionaire to exert influence… [on] a foreign war? https://t.co/qnTwPCGyqT
— Henry Foy (@HenryJFoy) October 14, 2022
? pic.twitter.com/FQWDIEzA9m
Ideally Musk makes an enemy out of the DOD, and they come down hard on the motherfucker. America can't have military contracts with a petulant child. Sure, DOD can pay for it, and they probably should, but the timing of this is incredibly fucking suspicious and just looks like Musk throwing another tantrum which could have serious consequences to the war efforts. I don't think this is about costs at all, I think this is just Musk's ego being hurt.
I'm fine with the DOD paying for Starlink and as I said, they probably should since it's so important (better than relying on the whims of a cry-baby) but with an ironclad contract which gives them full control over Starlink in Ukraine, no way for Musk to back out of it in the future, also no more Musk talking to Putin.
So @elonmusk is whining about losing a lot of money on Starlinks for Ukraine.
— Melaniya Podolyak (@MelaniePodolyak) October 14, 2022
Meanwhile, may I present to you snippets of my bank statements.
Thousands of Ukrainians, paying his company monthly.
So the question is: did you really lose more money than you earned? pic.twitter.com/w8OX2EBiqf
One senior US defense official told me the request has rankled top brass at the Pentagon while SpaceX has "the gall to look like heroes." The SpaceX figures show how much of an int'l collaboration is has been. https://t.co/gPZBgVEGME
— Alex Marquardt (@MarquardtA) October 13, 2022
1. Despite that, I have not seen ANY StarLink which was bought by the governments, or by SpaceX. All the Starlinks I have seen / used - were bought either by volunteers like myself, or soldiers put their personal money in.
— Dimko Zhluktenko ?? (@dim0kq) October 14, 2022
The subscription price is also paid out of the pocket.
Polish government bought 1/3 of Starlinks operating in Ukraine for 37.8 mln PLN (8 mln USD). US government paid for at least 1,333 terminals (3 mln USD). More terminals were purchased by EU countries. All without a lot of bragging. Contrary to the global promotion of SpaceX. https://t.co/vz3oNOLX7y
— Sylwia Czubkowska (@sylvcz) October 5, 2022
Essay Pro