War with Russia

[Psamathe]

Starlink is the commercial version, Starshield the military one.
I saw a suggestion that although Musk claimed it was the White House slowing the system, it was in fact Musk ordering it....

Reports I've seen (eg C4 News, UK National Press) say that the Pentagon control Starshield rather than Musk. But I have no knowledge on this beyond reports.

... Either way, the Americans are a bunch of shitheads.

I'm still amazed the US seem to treat him so well after DOGE that has been so discredited and found to have done such damage without achieving its goals. Yet still so many regard him as a brilliant "businessman".

 

[briantrumpet]

Reports I've seen (eg C4 News, UK National Press) say that the Pentagon control Starshield rather than Musk. But I have no knowledge on this beyond reports.

I'm still amazed the US seem to treat him so well after DOGE that has been so discredited and found to have done such damage without achieving its goals. Yet still so many regard him as a brilliant "businessman".

"What is it about the nearly-trillionnaire owner of X (which pays you to post fascist twaddle) that stops you criticising him as being a fascist keto-head rather than regarding him as a brilliant businessman?"

 

[Pinno718]

Good BBC "More or Less" (radio) short special episode on these claims and ... "does not stand scrutiny". Episode appeared in my podcast app today so recent (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct999d)

Which does further highlight that, as would be expected, both sides are not sticking to fact but putting spin on their achievements. It's only to be expected but it does mean that we need to be on our guard that the real world picture is not necessarily as the two sides are presenting.

Not quite. There were numerous news agencies taking about the decline in bot traffic. I think that is factual. The actual volume is arbitrary and there's every indication, due to the importance of these data centres in terms of digital payments and financial traffic, these functions were quickly shifted elsewhere.
Putin cares about shielding the Russian public from the effects of war. That was the original social contract: I will conduct this 'necessary' war, you [the public] don't need to worry about it. Currently, he's walking that tightrope until he can shift the narrative, the propaganda and blame the conniving West.

 

[Pinno718]

Yeah, I think there is precedent for Xi resisting such obvious side-taking (especially in a sham process with little chance of success).

As if the test of world doesn't see his involvement as deep in this administration?
India has turned the Starlink offer Musk has been begging them to take up citing their national security would be at risk if Musk decided to switch it off.
Only recently, the EU (see previous post) banned X from any satellite communication procurement (2.6bn eur worth of EU contracts awarded very recently to European based companies) and the rest of Europe is rapidly moving to alternatives and independence from Starlink.
Musk has really shot himself in the foot regardless of who switched Starlink's full function off.
Starlink is quickly becoming toxic globally which makes this a very poor financial/global brand decision.
The Scottish parliament recently put a motion to ban X in Scotland.
The French may press criminal charges after completing their investigation into Grok's ability to generate/manipulate child pornographic images.
Musk is the biggest donor to the current GOP mid term campaign and there's not a snowflakes chance in hell he cannot influence Trump nor the decisions made in the Pentagon.
He's full of sh*t (and Ketamine).

 

[Psamathe]

Not quite. There were numerous news agencies taking about the decline in bot traffic. I think that is factual. The actual volume is arbitrary and there's every indication, due to the importance of these data centres in terms of digital payments and financial traffic, these functions were quickly shifted elsewhere.

You need to look closer at what "BOTs" are. Zelensky was talkigmn about how much better social media had become thanks to their damage to data centres. The BOTs that present misinformation on Social Media are not operated out of data cewntres 9easy to detect and block automatically - I've done than on my personal website).

BOTs are also routine part of search engines as they trawl sites (using sitemaps from each site) on the responsible basis (as identified by each site's robots.txt) to create indexes used by users. Google does this, Bing does this, Qwant does this as does yandex. Zelensky was talking about the malicious social media bots (he specifically identified that) yet there seems there is no evidence that these were impacted (given they don't operate from data centres).

 

[Psamathe]

Starlink is quickly becoming toxic globally which makes this a very poor financial/global brand decision.

Maybe just my mentality but I block any access to my personal website through Starlink - just because I disagree with the damage the satellites do and I want to make Musk's offerings less useful. Trivial as it won't affect anybody but a personal thing just as I won't use Twitter, etc.

 

[Pinno718]

On day 1700 of Russia’s full-scale war, Ukraine strike on the Nikolskoye LPDS oil-pumping facility in Tambov Oblast—a Transneft-Druzhba network hub that regulates crude flows on the Kuibyshev-Unecha pipeline. Ukrainian strikes on a telecommunications operator in occupied Donetsk, a command post, repair facilities, logistics depots, and personnel concentrations.

Russia launched 165 drones on Ukraine last night. However, Ukraine intercepted 115.
Russian strikes kill children and targeted rush hour traffic, a park and café as well as a hospital clinic and more energy infrastructure.

Full update later.

 

[briantrumpet]

Sounds better.

 

[Pblakeney]

Sounds better.

View attachment 17873

Better but still under the control of the fickle.

 

[briantrumpet]

Better but still under the control of the fickle.

Obviously, but it buys a bit more breathing space for now.

 

[Psamathe]

Sounds better.

View attachment 17873

Hoping it's a good sign.
Thinking that if Ukraine can get as much help as possible from the US and reveal that help publicly then maybe it isolates Trûmp a bit more? ie Trùmp more widely associated with Putin while rest of US seen as more associated with Ukraine.

 

[Pinno718]

Sounds better.

View attachment 17873

I really really hope this is bona fide.

 

[briantrumpet]

Hoping it's a good sign.
Thinking that if Ukraine can get as much help as possible from the US and reveal that help publicly then maybe it isolates Trûmp a bit more? ie Trùmp more widely associated with Putin while rest of US seen as more associated with Ukraine.

Supposedly less insane Republicans are trying to get Trump to pivot back to supporting Ukraine, though obviously they are too lily-livered to use the constitutional mechanisms to remove him, even though they'd have grounds on several fronts. 'Tut-tutting' very loudly behind closed doors probably won't be enough.

 

[Pinno718]

Hoping it's a good sign.
Thinking that if Ukraine can get as much help as possible from the US and reveal that help publicly then maybe it isolates Trûmp a bit more? ie Trùmp more widely associated with Putin while rest of US seen as more associated with Ukraine.

I think this is about optics. Republicans have pushed back against Trump's rhetoric against Zelensky and in favour of Putin. Also, I don't think he expected this reaction. I think he expected his MAGA base to go all yeehaw but the reality is that the diesel deal is a dop in the ocean of US consumption and will have no effect on fuel prices.
Europe have just announced plans for satellite communications procurement and Musk was banned from tendering contracts.
Musk I presume, was equally naive, thinking that his monopoly was safe. Globally, (India being significant), Musk has badly damaged his brand and so this may be back pedalling quick to salvage his reputation and international markets.

 

[Psamathe]

Supposedly less insane Republicans are trying to get Trump to pivot back to supporting Ukraine, though obviously they are too lily-livered to use the constitutional mechanisms to remove him, even though they'd have grounds on several fronts. 'Tut-tutting' very loudly behind closed doors probably won't be enough

Again, I'm no expert on US legislatures but if the Midterms go the way commentators suggest, Trûmp would no longer be seen as an electoral asset which would weaken his hold over Republicans. Then maybe they can pass constraining legislation and have adequate support to mean Trúmp cannot veto it (⅔ vote).