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Ukraine 21: On the Attack with a Giant Phallic Spear


DireWolfSpirit

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6 hours ago, The Anti-Targ said:

If Starlink is still losing money, it's not because they are providing internet to Ukraine. Providing internet to Ukraine might mean they are losing more money than otherwise. But if Starlink is a money losing venture so far without Ukraine, then one solution is to not take the global good will that was generated by providing Starlink to Ukraine and piss it up a wall by appearing to cosy up to Putin and soon after pull the plug on Ukraine's access to Starlink. People who can pay >cost for Starlink were possibly more inclined to sign up for it a month ago. Who knows how many of those people are now deciding to stick with their current ISP?

Not to wander too far off the point, but Starlink, like Musk's other businesses, at this point is only secondarily a business as we would think of them: an entity concerned with making profits by participating in whatever activity. The primary reason it exists is to service Elon Musk's ego.

Sometimes that works to good ends, as when this all started. Sometimes it leads him to screw around with a good thing until his ego has been fed, as more recently. This is the danger of hyper-capitalism.

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5 minutes ago, mormont said:

Not to wander too far off the point, but Starlink, like Musk's other businesses, at this point is only secondarily a business as we would think of them: an entity concerned with making profits by participating in whatever activity. The primary reason it exists is to service Elon Musk's ego.

 

That is not true tho.

Space exploration is a bit like the Gold Rush in the Wild West of the US. It's about staking claims and there are little to no laws that govern stuff there. The interesting stakes to lay claim to, are in the low orbit , where sattelites work. Most of the shit flying around there doesn't belong to NASA or ESA, no, no, no. It's Musk's Star Link. Space there is limited, and the more you occupy the better you are positioned. So general consensus is, that this business venture of his will work out very well for Musk in the long run, and that it's decisively not some vanity project - same goes for the Space adventure of Bezos.  

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1 hour ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

Press gangs wandering the streets of major Russian cities to grab men of fighting age… and beyond it… off the street.  ^Clearly things are going well for the Russians.^

They want as many people as possible to share in the victory, to personally experience being a hero in the country of heroes.

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The thing about Starlink in Ukraine, however, is that Musk is now playing in the defense contracting space.  DoD contracting decision-makers have long memories, and there are specific protocols and a liturgy of cooperation and communication that suppliers and contractors generally have to follow.

None of these moves include publicly moaning and complaining about having to be a defense contractor, or pleading poverty, which is basically what Musk did.  I know that Tesla doesn't even have a public relations department, so my guess is that Musk believes he can just handle all GRRO functions himself, over Twitter.

My guess is that Defense mandarins are going to remember this, and if Musk wants to formally participate in military markets in the future, he is going to find it more challenging.

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27 minutes ago, Firebrand Jace said:

So I think that Mr. Eclectic Electric Car Man was paid in girls to turn off the Ukrainian access. 

My coworker thinks he was paid in gold. 

What do you guys think? Girls or gold? Or indeed girls gilded in gold? 

Something with girls and golden things at the least 

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37 minutes ago, Firebrand Jace said:

So I think that Mr. Eclectic Electric Car Man was paid in girls to turn off the Ukrainian access. 

My coworker thinks he was paid in gold. 

What do you guys think? Girls or gold? Or indeed girls gilded in gold? 

In they next Bond movie they could have Musk just play himself and tbh it would fit in perfectly with the typical Bond villain.

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12 minutes ago, Arakasi said:

In they next Bond movie they could have Musk just play himself and tbh it would fit in perfectly with the typical Bond villain.

Much as I am not a fan of the man I find it hard to really hate him as it seems a good liberal should. 

I mean, if you let me kinda claim an entire chunk of space and buy the most popular information transfer system in the country, both to my own purposes, I would absolutely do that.

I mean if you're just gonna let me! And if my credit card could handle the transaction without disintegrating into smoke.

2 minutes ago, Matrim Fox Cauthon said:

Despite the blackout, there are some reports that the Russians are evacuating people and "state institutions" (e.g., banks, pensions, etc.) to across the Dnipro, though it sounds like looting while on the backfoot. 

We're not looting! We're enriching in retreat!

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3 hours ago, ThinkerX said:

Vague internet rumors of a gunman, or more than one, opening fire on 'Russian Volunteers' in Belarius (?) Supposedly 15 dead and about that many more wounded.

If this is real and part of a trend, then...

 

This is separate from the other shooting incident at a gun range in Russia, near Belgorod, which was reported the other day?

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48 minutes ago, Corvinus85 said:

This is separate from the other shooting incident at a gun range in Russia, near Belgorod, which was reported the other day?

Can't say for sure - dratted articles come and go to fast to keep track of. It sounded like a recruit mustering point, if that helps.

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20 minutes ago, ThinkerX said:

Can't say for sure - dratted articles come and go to fast to keep track of. It sounded like a recruit mustering point, if that helps.

Sounds like this story then. 30 Russians dead after three tajiks opened fire on them in an ironic demonstration of what happens when you don't respect others and their culture.

 

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Muslims make up around 10% of the population of Russia, maybe more, with over 14 million adherents. Pissing all of them off, many of them in areas which are already shaky in their historical loyalty to Moscow (notably Chechnya), is a great thing to do as you try to recruit more troops for the front line.

Meanwhile, Christian, Orthodox, Jewish and Muslim fighters are posting videos of them fighting alongside one another in harmony in Ukraine.

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9 hours ago, Werthead said:

Muslims make up around 10% of the population of Russia, maybe more, with over 14 million adherents. Pissing all of them off, many of them in areas which are already shaky in their historical loyalty to Moscow (notably Chechnya), is a great thing to do as you try to recruit more troops for the front line.

Meanwhile, Christian, Orthodox, Jewish and Muslim fighters are posting videos of them fighting alongside one another in harmony in Ukraine.

Damn that Nazi Ukraine, forcing the Jews to the front lines like that. It's inhuman!

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