The world’s richest man has continued his campaign against Kyiv, this time by using a fake picture of President Zelensky to mock Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s full-scale invasion.

  • MTLion3@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    You know, I almost retweeted this saying something demeaning, but even engaging him in a negative manner on his platform only supports him. What a truly revolting human being

  • joneskind@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    When Trump appointed Musk he said that Musk would have licked his boots if he asked.

    Back in the day I thought it was just another Trump’s bragging nonsense.

    Now I have the absolute certainty that the coward Elon Musk could have ate shit directly from Trump’s butthole.

    For Christ sake will this man ever stop? My head is about to explode.

  • Chariotwheel@kbin.socialOP
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    1 year ago

    I know Star Link is useful, but boy, Ukraine should really be careful using it now. Devil knows what Musk is cooking up next to undermine Ukraine. As much as it’s needed, Ukraine can not depend too much on it.

    • Cyborganism@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      Honestly Star Link should be seized by the DoD for national security reasons and for suspicion of Musk aiding a foreign enemy.

        • BraveSirZaphod@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          Allow me to give you a reminder that, until quite recently, USPS was run by a Trump-appointed stooge who intentionally sabotaged mail service in order to try to reduce the impact of mail-in voting.

          You really need to keep in mind, when proposing the government take over an entire industry, that in America a good 50% of the time that government will be run by hapless malicious morons. I, personally, would not want Donald Trump to be in a position to unilaterally decide what the American internet looks like and to arbitrarily ban whatever he thinks is harmful to his interests.

          • AliasAKA@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            This is why you also have laws in place to protect the core functioning of an entity. It’s why even with an absolute hack trying to undermine it, the USPS still delivered mail almost completely uninterrupted (despite the losing of sorting machines, which was about all that stooge could do to hinder the USPS).

            I’d much rather federal and local municipalities run fiber options. If you’re using a utility pole, you should be subject to utility regulations full stop. And compared to having a locally monopolistic private corporation that has much more unilateral freedom to do super shady shit, I’d really prefer an entity that at least can have government oversight and associated required disclosures.

            • BraveSirZaphod@kbin.social
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              1 year ago

              I’d be all for some amount of public offering, but especially in the face of Republican’s increasingly strong war against the mere existence of a lot of federal agencies, my faith in those laws and institutions is growing increasingly fragile.

              Private companies, for all their faults, can at least by relied on to do what makes them the most money, and the collapse of democracy doesn’t really line up well with that, whereas a lot of Republicans in government simply want to watch the world burn, which isn’t exactly very profitable to Wall Street.

              • AliasAKA@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                I actually disagree. Despite four years and their best efforts, they couldn’t even dismantle the USPS or ACA or the IRS. I’m actually a bit bullish on our government agencies. Are they under attack? Yes. How can we protect them? More democracy. If we have a healthy democracy, then we have healthy institutions. If we don’t have a healthy democracy, well, we have way bigger problems than whether internet is a government entity or not, because in a fascist state everything is essentially run by an oligarch anyways.

                Democracy actually isn’t favorable to Wall Street. It favors labor far too much, and then the pesky issue of taxes. Corporate conglomeration actually wants oligarchy, not democracy. It’s far better for them to have absolute and total control to extort labor and consumers to drive wealth to a select few. Wall Street doesn’t care about democracy, it cares about funneling money to a small amount of people. They can do it in a democracy, but to say that they couldn’t also do it in an oligarchy they participate in is I think opposite what would actually happen.

                • BraveSirZaphod@kbin.social
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                  1 year ago

                  Wall Street doesn’t care about democracy, it cares about funneling money to a small amount of people. They can do it in a democracy, but to say that they couldn’t also do it in an oligarchy they participate in is I think opposite what would actually happen.

                  I loosely agree with that in principle, but modern Republicans like the House Freedom Caucus are not the kinds of oligarchs Wall Street would want. They’re motivated by raw resentment, anger, and a desire to hurt their perceived enemies, not profit. Wall Street doesn’t care at all about “wokeness”; if that’s what customers want, they’ll gladly provide it, whereas you’re increasingly seeing Republicans attack large corporations for not matching their own specific narrow ideology (see, the DeSantis v. Disney fight).

                  My point isn’t that Wall Street is good - only that they’re reliable and predictable. In a perfect world, I’d absolutely want to see a strong national ISP akin to the USPS that’s completely isolated from political bullshit. In the current political climate though, I’m very concerned for the ability of our institutions to actually remain isolated from political pressures, which could be extremely strong given the power at stake. Pending SCOTUS cases have the potential to rip open a giant hole in the administrative state’s ability to maintain some level of independence from the executive, for instance.

                  To be clear, I’m not saying you’re really wrong, and I completely understand your position. I just don’t think I’m quite as optimistic, or perhaps alternatively, I’m a bit more paranoid.

          • Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            Even while Trump’s idiot was in charge, tampering with the mail was a federal offense.

            And I don’t imagine it being totally public. USPS would own the network, and companies would pay them to sell access. This would allow dozens of ISPs, all offering different levels of service, without needing local monopolies. It would look a lot like dial up ISPs: You could use AOL, EarthLink, NetZero, or any of a handful of small, local ISPs.

            The USPS would then contract with companies to maintain the networks, but since they own it they can regulate the ISPs a lot more closely on a host of issues. Plus it would give free access to all online government services.

            • BraveSirZaphod@kbin.social
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              1 year ago

              I could get behind something like that, though I do wonder how big a difference that would really necessarily make. Cell phone network providers have to lease spectrum ranges from the government, but it’s not as if that market is actually robust. Beyond that, Congress is perfectly able to pass regulation on ISPs, but doesn’t for a variety of stupid political reasons. I’m not sure how those couldn’t equally apply to USPS oversight (perhaps even more cheaply, since you’d have fewer people to bribe I mean, lobby).

              I don’t really have an issue with in in principle, but I’m not convinced it would inherently make things much better either.

          • reverendsteveii@sopuli.xyz
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            1 year ago

            DeJoy was appointed by the USPS board of governors, not Trump. He’s still in charge. You’ll notice that mail in voting worked and Trump lost, and also that even with a hideous bucket of fuck like DeJoy doing his best to cripple it in order to drive business to UPS and FedEx the USPS still delivers more places, faster and cheaper than all it’s competitors. USPS is strong. It should function as a mail service, an official part of the electoral system and it’s function as a bank should be restored. I wouldn’t be mad if it ended up running a significant backbone of the US internet as well.

          • Ooops@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            Which will not happen in private hands always trying to get a monopoly even if only locally.

            So level the playing field. Public infrastructure for all, let companies provide the last meters and/or the service only.

            • BB69@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Not really sure, just seems like a maddening proposition. Internet should be run locally, not nationally.

              If the USPS was in charge of internet, we’d be on DSL since it’s good enough.

              • Ooops@kbin.social
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                1 year ago

                It’s not about local/national… in todays day and age internet and phone should be a public service for all.

    • SirQuackTheDuck@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Stop playing attention to this billionaire idiot, he’s only spewing vomit at this point to stay in the limelight. Nothing of sustenance is coming out of that guy.

    • Unaware7013@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Are they even able to use it? My understanding was that it was never turned on because Comrade Musk didn’t want to piss off his Russian financiers by letting them use the service he made the USGov pay for.

      • Chariotwheel@kbin.socialOP
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        1 year ago

        Yeah, they are able to use it, just not at the front. It is useful though.

        The issue is that you can’t trust it.

          • IsoKiero@sopuli.xyz
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            1 year ago

            If I was in a situation where starlink was only option for connectivity, sure, but at the front lines cell service isn’t really reliable as whole towers are missing and/or damaged and even if the cell tower was there it’s not a quarantee that it’s connected to anything or has power. Starlink doesn’t require a (literal) ton of infrastructure on the ground around you and that’s why it’s been really useful, and often the only option, Ukraine has.

            Starlink as a technology is really cool and when it came to the market I hoped I would get to play with it some day, but now as the company is ran by that twat who shovels DoD money into his own pockets and is on his knees for russians the interest and ‘geek factor’ isn’t really there anymore.

      • ascense@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        If you are interested in a rather detailed analysis of Starlink in Ukraine, I highly recommend listening to episode 53 of the ‘Geopolitics Decanted’ podcast.

    • Ooops@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      It’s only an insult for morons being absolutely sure about their own superiority while behaving like the most delusional idiot ever observed.

      So in this context I can live with it.

      • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 year ago

        I’ve seen people told to “get help” for a lot of things, though. Delusional idiocy is in the eye of the beholder. I’d really prefer it if we didn’t attach a new stigma for when situations come up where help actually is available and needed.

  • frazw@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Can we please turn xitter into a site that is exclusively for shitting on Elon? He’d either be so exhausted from moderating it all that he wouldn’t have time to post himself or he might get a little perspective - but probably not.

    • konalt@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Implying that he moderates it himself, and doesn’t have 10 tired employees working around the clock

      • frazw@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Well, he probably at least reads it if he doesn’t moderate himself. I suspect he reads, then orders someone to make the nasty people go away.

  • rip_art_bell@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Each day I hope there won’t be news of Elon saying something painfully stupid or embarrassing himself

    Each day I’m wrong

  • YeetPics@mander.xyz
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    1 year ago

    I think Quitewrong Thrush just likes putin based on his ability to overpromise and underdeliver.

    Self driving teslas: 2 years out

    Ukraine absorbtion: 3 days out

    And here we are with neither, these 2 failures can’t do shit right.

    • reverendsteveii@sopuli.xyz
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      1 year ago

      Hey now, that’s not fair. We also got to see one of them take a global superpower and make it into a regional contender while the other took a space program that had been to the moon and turned it into a space program that can nearly reach orbit.