@skyboys9814 - That worked for a little while, But when the feds decided to sick the SEC on him, it really slowed hom down... That was so unecessary, and Howard Hughes soon found ways to occupy the agressive ones at the upper levels of the SEC .....,
@skyboys9814 And that could be what prompted the SEC to go after him... Howard Hughes did have access to considerable wealth, after his father passed away, and he grew that money to much larger levels before long... But to tell the DOD and the Feds that "He'll deal with them at his OWN discretion" , Well that usually doesn't sit very well with some pretty powerful people... Generally a BAD idea.... If Howard Hughes was sharp enough to realise what kind of power and authority he was up against, he would have humerd those people with genuine signs of compliance of what they wanted him to produce... And for those who refused to do that, well the stories of several of the previously established gangsters, pretty much completed the full circle they were headed to... Al Capone was perhaps one of the most notorious of the Ruthless killers the authorities were after, and finally aprehended and duely processed , then convicted and sentenanced... This is a very heavy subject, but Elong Musty NEEDS to stop meddling in International affairs with foreign powers... Otherwise He could be one of the next High Profile arrests made by the authorities....
If the DoD wants to control the geo fencing and unfettered use of Starlink, then pay for it. What other US defense contractor provides services for free, before a contract is signed? Where is the praise for Starlink providing free Starlink to Ukraine in the first place? Would Boreing or LockMart have done this?
Nuanced coverage of polarizing figures like Musk is hard to come by. It’s important to understand opposing views independently and ideally before deciding to agree or disagree with them. The world need more of this sort of coverage.
I've had Tesla stock for many years, and I've bought more over time. Musk makes the Tesla ride a thrill ride, and I don't mean in a good way. I wish Musk was less public. Thanks for you comment. Well taken.
@@ashleyobrien4937 He avoided dabbling in convenient misinformation, which many Musk detractors do. He also went pretty soft on Musk's recent Twitter timeline, opting to simply sum it up as him "trying to placate Russia". It's much, much worse than that. It would have maybe illustrated the risk better, but it would also have made the video too much about Musk and less about the issue of tech monopolies in key defense infrastructure (this goes back to the intro of the video Grumman).
@@emmettjones5165 as someone who has suffered over the years for my ‘free speech’ I appreciate the ability to say what you mean without becoming the issue yourself. Speaking truth to power comes in many forms and it is not without some pride to see a side of the military that is not often shown displayed here; a sound factual workmanlike assessment of reality that informs and doesn’t enflame (is that a word?). So common elsewhere to see the word ‘professional’ misused as a cover for bad acts and actors, but our officer corp seems to truly have the best features for their purpose intact. Musk is a vital, loose-cannon. I’m thankful for the fact that he must interface with our best in this realm.
It was mostly factually incorrect, actually. And his snotty, superior attitude is downright repulsive and more than a bit ironic. Not to mention a great demonstration of Dunning-Kruger in action.
Agreed. I was 10 in 1980, awareness of the Cold War was just beginning to seep in. Imagine the State Department in 1980 receiving a telex from Ukraine SSR, at the time a state in the Soviet Union. "Red Army units have crossed our internal border with intent of removing local government. Send help."
@@emmettjones5165"But keep it on the down-low. We don't want to start WW3." Honestly, in 1980 with USSR still at full strength, they probably would have thrown Ukraine to the wolves, as with Hungary in '56 and the Czechs in '68. (and the Poles and Balts generally)
@@MM22966wasn't Ukraine already part of the USSR at that point? It'd be more like declaring martial law than invading a sovereign nation. Still scary to consider nonetheless.
There were several snuck premises in the video. I have no problem with Elon expressing concern about escalation of war, use of his technology, and so forth. It's not as if the powers that be have been truthful, reliable, honest, or efficient (especially the past couple of years). Naive to think his technology won't be used for violence? Hardly. Even clubs and knives, stretching back to their invention thousands of years ago, have been used for evil. Elon is smart enough to know tech of any kind will be abused. That doesn't mean he has to fund it personally, which was happening for quite a while. Now they're jealous that he has succeeded to such an extraordinary degree in so many realms? Elon has visions of greater things for humanity - no wonder the politicos, lackeys, hacks, and hangers-on hate him.
@@johnd2895 He is afraid to address the main cause of war which is RUSSIA. That indicates that he is not a free man and beholden to RUSSIA. All his "peacekeeping" is a red herring to help russia.
@@dukenukem8381 If that was true, he wouldn't have saved Ukraine on day 2 of the war when their command & control had been shock-n-awed. If it had been me, I would have given them a month to come up with the money to pay for service, then shut it down if they failed.
@@dukenukem8381 The main cause of the major wars since the second has always been the US ambition for global hegemony and this attempt at taking Ukraine ( with it's millions of ethnic Russians ) from the Russian sphere of influence was so arrogant that the Russians simply could not believe it and apparently kept thinking they could manage a peaceful solution right up to the end. Turns out America would almost always risk nuclear escalation if it comes to choosing between giving up influence/power and taking a step back from global domination.
7:45 there's no way the drone pictured is being flown via Starlink. It's clearly via a point-to-point, line-of-sight radio link. Larger drones could be flown with Starlink, but the US had the Predator and Reaper before Starlink, so Starlink is clearly not "required"
It’s not OK to tell somebody that they have to give their technology to another country. If the government wants to support another country, then they should contract for those services.
@@charlesmartin1121 I would argue that Ukraine hasn't paid a dime for the service so I don't see any problem with a provider stopping providing. The US Def Dept. isn't paying for it either (specifically Starlink) so why should it be up to them what Musk does with his services. (I understand you quip about taxes etc... but that has nothing to do with the service provided to Ukraine).
SpaceX asked the DOD to compensate them for the Ukrainian Starlink use, and the DOD refused. At that point it's kind of disingenuous to act outraged when a private company decides that it doesn't want to foot the bill for a foreign war.
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 Fun fact. At the beginning of the Ukraine war when Russia was launching their tactical rockets at civilian targets. Ukraine, who had already been gifted Starlink at a military level from Elon, re-coordinated the satalite guidance systems for the Russian rockets. Results, eight very powerful rockets once airborne did an immediate turnaround and were redirected back at the exact laughing pad coordinates of which they came. And they were not peaceful non destructive landings either. Starlink was said to be the hub to take over the internet, cable and telephone industries, but it has been weaponzied just like anything else. There are 11k starlink satalites currently orbit and the plan is to end up with 40k of them. If you are on earth, you truly have no freedoms or privacy. This is why governments and elites are designing and building their own little off world sanctuaries.
i have been saying this for some time too. the pro ukraine crowd is quick to badmouth Musk, but never calls out the US government. even sadder is the fact that a privet company has capabilities better than the US government (and EU nations) to support the war in ukraine. at times it feels like ukraine has become a welfare state that cries anytime they don't get something for free.
No, Elon told you that's what happened. USAID not only paid for the terminals, they also paid for the shipping. SpaceX was awarded a contract to continue providing service to the US military into 2030 and that includes operations in Ukraine.
Very good commentary, by the way, Elon is very concerned about space junk as well, so all his satellites use their thrusters to maintain orbit, ( which because of the altitude do experience drag, ( just like the ISS), and need to be re- boosted and positioned once in a while). They have enough fuel for around 5 years of active use. After useful life, there is just enough fuel left to de-orbit his satellites, and they are specifically designed to burn up completely upon re-entry. I believe he said he has 14 early satellites that ran out of fuel too soon, or got damaged, and will remain in orbit uncontrolled for around 3 more yrs before coming down on their own. Out of his 6000 satellites, that’s not bad. One of his visions for his starship, once operational, is to possibly collect up those bad satellites. The guy is a visionary character for sure. I spent my life as a mover and shaker in global manufacturing, and have never seen any companies as productive as his, and his people.
Starship is not going to be used to collect satellites. The physics, fuel and orbital dynamics make any nonsense about collecting space debris sheer folly. 40 years in the space industry, seen all kinds of proposals to do so and they all come to the same dead end.
Its also nice to have a defense contractor who weighs Putin's advice...directly. Imagine if during WW2 North American's CEO chatted with Hitler from time to time?
@@badlt5897 Good Point... I don't like when a person in a position that he was in, arbitrarily converses on matters of our National defense, with the adversaries of our country and/or our allies... E.M. stepped WAY beyond his level of authority, by conversing & acting ; as a Personal Puppet for Putin...
@@allenahil That is an amusing comment that You made about Your views of defense and offense... What is interesting is the way You immediately assumed that I'm confused of what those words mean .... Defense is a method to repulse / repel Offenseive forces... Your view of what E.M. has done by aiding our adversaries, seems to be one of some sort of a folk hero .. That individual is little more than a communist - totalitarian sympathiser, like Jane Fondle was during the police action in S.E. Asia...
@@tedmoss WTF are you talking about? Starlink isnt a military system and neither is the coast guard. Why is there so much nonsense being bandied about in the comments?
You sure do have an interesting way to describe Musk. Adjectives and adverbs say a lot about a person. You have a real passive aggressive stance towards him. That indicates you lean strongly to the left. That being the case, you make a mockery of that jacket and your time served.
Yes he does, this video sure isn’t going to help him grow his channel. I only recently subscribed, now I will likely unsubscribe…I don’t like tyrants or people who support tyrants.
It is a top 2 YT channel! The other being Alex Hollings, who Ward recommended a couple years ago. Everyone should be thankful to have Ward around. He is extremely good, very measured, and never codes to conjecture!
I have never purchased a Tesla. I certainly cannot fathom having the means to go to space but Elon is a very interesting character. It seems most of the people in his arena are so used to being dishonest as a standard business practice that they have a very hard time with him. He will say what he thinks and listens to your argument intently. He will act on it if makes sense. But he has a very good ability to see through all the fluff and around the point arguments. It's a very strange approach sadly in a position where you would expect being direct and straight to the point would be status quo.
@@criticaleventif you think somehow the Don Lemon interview went poorly for Elon, that I would guess you have a very biased opinion. Don Lemon is an absolute joke, and got put right in his place
@@criticalevent You have a lot to learn about advertising. Keeping in the public eye requires controversy. Teaching people to think for themselves is an unrewarding project, but if you are going to take on the most difficult challenges, it helps to be the worlds richest man by a very long way. The proof is in the pudding.
It's just a reminder that you've spent your life below Mach 1, and he hasn't. Using units of measure familiar to you, even in situations where they strictly speaking don't apply, is normal human behavior. Just be kind, and interpret his "Mach 25" in orbit as "about 11x as fast as I went in an F-14 not in orbit, at an altitude where Mach numbers DO apply". It's like saying a building is as tall as 4 football fields. It's just choosing a unit of measure that some people can relate to, to help visualize it. Last time I checked, football fields weren't 100 yards tall, or even had any height associated with them, actually being a plane which height does not apply to (or a very plane-like section of a very large sphere....I mean oblate spheroid....I mean geoid). Some people would nitpick that a football field is 120 yards rather than 100. There is always something to nitpick.
Yes exactly - I'm a big Musk fan and he is doing great work but I'm not ignorant of his flaws. He is also playing a sensitive chess game with the the US government. Ward has become a balanced voice of reason with insider knowledge. Keep up the good work.
I understand @tedmoss, I can remember when all L1011's became worthless overnight, but Ward provides a breath and depth to the topic and doesn't try and spin it.
When I was at Tesla, I drank beer with Elon in the auto shop after hours with some other engineers... he is, in person, the same guy you see in interviews. And, he does indeed have some Asperger's Syndrome (it takes one to know one.) But his beer choice - Heineken - well, even I know to avoid skunk piss. And as I am about to click the Comment button, this will go up and out over my Starlink panel, which has brought color to this rural, old, slow DSL black and white world of the ranch. What was once 1Mb/s download is now 125-250 Mb/s
Given that he's packed on a few pounds in the years since, it's probably a good idea to cut out beer. But back in 2008, yes he did indeed.@@elmerhuyard3565 ...then again, so have I and I cut beer intake way down. Yeah, and bread, snacks, cookies....
Free speech is free speech & only probability of truth decides how reliable it is. UN said in 50s world will end of environmenttal crises in 80s ...It didnt ...same story happened every decade. Clearly UN & WEF r liers not R8 wingers. UN says women r victums & oppressed...Extensive stats show they have highest hapiness index. Clearly UN r liers
My college was in the same town with a major NY engineering university. I dated many brainy engineer students - some might call them 'geeks', but I finally found young men whom I clicked with. I eventually married one. Looking back I now realize that many of those wonderful talented young men showed signs of undiagnosed Asbergers - which is what made them geniuses. I adore Elon. He has all the characteristics that make a great man
Hi Ward - your insight is thoughtful and appreciated as usual. I do think, however, that there's more to this than just the war in Ukraine. Musk is privy to information on political operations here - operations that the public isn't meant to see - both through his government contracting with NASA fighting the established beltway mainstays to get a foot in the door, and of course through his acquisition of Twitter and all the backchannel communications between the political parties and the prior Twitter leadership. He is a private citizen, entitled to his own beliefs, and yes happens to own and operate some massively important companies and services. Like it or not, he also has a responsibility to shareholders and investors to show a return on their trust in him. I'm definitely a fan of Musk on many fronts, but I understand the he's a hard person to nail down and prone to change his mind seemingly overnight. Should any one person / company have this kind of independent power over something so vital to a country's war effort? Probably not. But the fact is every other American is free to do what he did, but they haven't. So in a way you just have to roll with it. I am a fine of the Pentagon investing in the purchase of SpaceX hardware to develop a system they own though - that will take a lot of the guesswork of things like this, plus compensate SpaceX for their expenditures so far.
@9:10 there is an important missing piece of information here... The cutoff wasn't a decision by Musk, it was a software update implemented by SpaceX engineers to comply with a completely unrelated demand by the FCC that SpaceX not provide service in countries that it didn't have operational agreements with. The digital FCC map they tied into the service categorized the occupied oblasts of Ukraine as "Russia" so when the software update went out the dishes in those region cut themselves off. The fact that this narrative of "Musk turned off starlink after direction from Putin" is still floating around is why Elons insistence that PR is unnecessary will be his downfall.
How about a breakdown on Boeing defense contracts being used to, can I say subsidizing, it's dismal performance in commercial aviation? Are the defense contracts holding the FAA hostage in regulating its commercial aviation failures? How does this affect National Defense preparedness and futurity? Since this is a non-political content website (thank you!) I won't ask if red vs. blue conflicts determines what compromises the DOD has to make in procurement. Outstanding, Thank You
i would look at cheney's ties to boeing, did he personally profit from the move? whether it was necessary or not, that should always be a question with these insane government contracts.
I recommended to DOD almost 20 yrs ago that they needed a LEO sat system in order to reduce latency to meet certain needs. They didn't green light it but I got a cool t-shirt, coffee mug and a big old BZ for the effort ;-)
The technology (specifically "reusable launchers") wasn't ready yet. A LEO satellite system would have cost 10-20x as much to launch, since the satellites would have been larger (thus fewer per launch) and each launch would have been stunningly more expensive. IOW, great ideas are useless before the technology is ready to make it work.
@@RonJohn63 True but, with all do respect, when developing future complex tech systems you don't have to wait till all required technologies meet all baseline requirements. The most effective way is to first identify the need, CONOPS and system requirements, then assess current state of all underlying tech to meet those sys requirements, identify what's not currently good enough or what is cost prohibitive, look at future tech and market trends, and start designing, building, verifying, validating, etc. using what's currently available and do iterative cycles of that whole process - swapping out and re-integrating subsystem components as their relative tech advances and matures. The way things are currently done in many instances, and what you're proposing, i.e. waiting till every aspect is ready to go, is one reason why many areas of development fall behind - or actually have fallen behind. Of course, the whole funding/acquisition process has a significant contribution to slowing things down but it is what it is, until someone can make that better. You gotta have vision, foresight and the creativity to put it together in your mind first and then on paper, before you even connect one wire or write one line of code. The LEO sat comms net is only one of many concepts that nobody had the vision to start early work on. But that case was basically due to a lack of clear understanding of the impact on meeting upcoming mission requirements, due to network latency and dropouts, on data throughput, and that in turn due to the nature of underlying network protocols and software algorithms. All documented from projects I began to propose/design 20 years ago. Best regards.
i'm curious as to what engineering you think musk contributed to in paypal, space-x or tesla? my understanding is thiel brought musk into paypal to speed up the process of paypal being purchased, while trashing musk's own financial software, being a money investor is not the same as being an engineer, even if that's what your degree says. thiel is another government contract holder, palantir, who should be investigated. you leave out a very important detail, tesla frames are built with russian aluminum, so the heart of musk's networth, tesla stock prices are directly tied to business interests in russia and china(batteries), not exactly someone who should be in the trusted chain of national defense.
Musk: "Hey, I can't keep doing this shit for free." Pentagon: *crickets* Musk: *flips the off switch* Pentagon: "Hey, hey, hey....hey...that's not fair!"
Hey Ward, any insight or care to comment why all the Commanders are being relieved of duty lately. Seems pretty strange to me from the outside looking in
there is almost no hope if Elon dies tbh. We've entities like WEF, Blackrock or worst George Soros who does nothing but destructions. Bill Gates even thinks the world has too much population.
One of the best balanced and honest commentaries of Elon Musk I've seen. He's clearly a brilliant businessman with a solid technical background that has built something special in both Space-X and Tesla, but sometimes he does things that no one can explain.
I can explain it....Defense contractors and deep state actors don't have him by the balls like they do everyone else. So they rely on people's ignorance to trash talk him because "Oragne man bad" That's all this stuff ever does.
He's bringing me a gratification I never expected to receive, it's been delayed so long. Means and opportunity rarely occur together. He is actually doing it. Great name btw. @@helmshardover
I seem to recall Starlink was not available over Ukraine before the war started. With the request from the Ukraine government, Starlink coverage was approved/allowed and Spacex donated terminals for their civilian citizens, to my understanding, to use since their telecommunications infrastructure was degraded by Russia when it invaded. Musk/Spacex knew(probably) their terminals would end up in the hands of the military since they weren't physically controlling them after the donation. At the time of the invasion, I think Starlink was the only, widely operational and successful satellite internet constellation. Hindsight is 20/20, but maybe the Pentagon could have funded a Starlink competitor like Nasa does with Boeing Starliner? We'd still be in the same situation now. Just my ramblings.
Musk's $1.8 Billion StarShield contract with NRO is an interesting read. Reporting on the topic indicates the program is part of SDA - apparently a revival of the " Brilliant Pebbles" concept from the Reagan era (SDI/Star Wars). Thanks, Ward
I assume it’s a small sat SAR constellation that can do both space domain awareness and ground. Fits with the tech stack as starlink is all beam forming
@@dmacpher Apparently so. Imaging was also mentioned in the (reuters) newser. COTS imaging gear is really good nowadays - Sony sensors and Canon/Optron lenses come to mind. Years ago, the Dragonfly Array used Canon lenses to image previously unseen ultra-low luminance deep space objects. Cool stuff.
I love your fairly unbiased reporting and great information. some minor corrections: LEO satellites don't need ion thrusters for anything to do with their orbit; the launch rocket puts them into orbit, giving them the mach 25 speed. the use the thrusters to spread out in space in relation to each other.
Actually it's just to have more orbit-maintenance and maneuvering capability per pound of fuel/thrusters that you pay to get into orbit. Better specific impulse. What you use that for, is not what makes you choose it. The fact that it will remain functional for several times as long, is the reason to use it. LEO satellites do encounter some drag, so need orbit maintenance burns just to stay in the same orbit.
Stating that a satellite flys a Mach whatever is a moot point as at that altitude there is no air thus the speed of sound and therefore “Mach” is irrelevant. Try stating the speed of a satellite in mph.
Correction to your correction... SpaceX satellites are low enough in low earth orbit that they actually do encounter drag. Without ion thrusters to periodically boost their orbits, they would deorbit and burn in the atmosphere within months. It's a good thing, as faulty satellites won't remain in orbit as space junk for long.
Correction to your correction... SpaceX satellites are low enough in low earth orbit that they actually do encounter drag. Without ion thrusters to periodically boost their orbits, they would deorbit and burn in the atmosphere within months.
I suspect another consideration for Musk and Starlink, is that Russia may have the capability to start systematically disabling Starlink platforms using anti-satellite directed energy weapons, should Putin give the order.
So the bottom line is that Musk was providing a service to Ukraine and Ukraine wasn’t paying for it. So now the Pentagon is paying for it. Why is Musk portrayed as an erratic oddball in this video?
Thanks for a very accurate portrayal of the realities of Musk/DOD interactions. Your excellent reporting should have more reach IMO. Thanks from Idaho, Ward!
After reading his biography I am convinced he is the smartest guy since Einstein. Maybe since forever. Totally amazing thought processes that have revolutionized almost everything he has tried.
No, he didn't co-found PayPal. He came along later, and when they got rid of him, part of the deal was to refer to him as a co-founder. The hagiography surrounding Mr. Musk is vastly untrue.
Only thing I would add is that the front line geofencing was to stop both sides from using the service as Russia also had the terminals. Ukraine was also using starlink for its naval drones which put them offside if they allowed it knowingly without a waiver from the DoD
Yes, this wasn't mentioned. SpaceX found it was on tricky ground legally if they allowed Starlink to be used on russian occupied territory. Thus the way out of this problem was to contract these areas out to the control of the Pentagon (which wasn't instantaneous - surprise, surprise). If you don't like the way it was handled blame US law and the Pentagon, SpaceX was simply trying to be in compliance. Of course our government allowed SpaceX and thus Musk to take all the heat. Pretty predictable and disgusting.
@@StormyDog to add - the biggest issue was the fact that starlink was being used for remote guidance of offensive weapons (the marine suicide drones). That changes its classification.
Update for starlink on March 8, 2024, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted SpaceX conditional approval to use E-band radio waves to increase the capacity of Starlink's low Earth orbit broadband constellation. 1) This will allow Starlink to have four times the bandwidth. 2) Recently, liftoff of Starship.
Ukraine paid way above the going rate for their equipment and service. Musk is a mercurial individual. That has always made dealing with him problematic for anyone put in that position from employees on up the chain.
The he needs to give back the hundreds of millions he has used in tax payer money over the years to prop up all of his totally original and uniquely made by his own genius string of companies.
It is telling that other defense contractors are making Billions, and Starlink is just free... If this was Boeing, they would demand a Billion a month or something.
its a parasitic rather than symbiotic relationship seems like given the profit margins these monopolies enable. Its not fair to put starlink in a position to pay or influence outcomes. The feds should pay for it if they want the stuff out there, and make the decision if the hardware will provided and how. Dangerous to let any commercial company decide such things, but not fair to make them fund it.
GOD you idiots talk as if SOMEBODY ELSE WOULD NOT IMMEDIATELY TAKE HIS PLACE AND BUILD VEHICLES, but MINUS all the corruption and fraud. You keep excusing the negatives because of a few positives. But WHEN THE NEGATIVES ARE ENTIRELY UNNECESSARY, THERE IS NO LOGICAL REASON TO DEFEND THAT OPTION.
Yes, but he is definitely what I would call the perfect example of the idiom: “double-edged sword”. However if there hadn’t been so many political games and funding cuts to NASA - we wouldn’t be in the situation when we had to have Musk bail out our Space Program.
You can't blame a guy who is getting things done, while Pentagon couldn't, for the failures of Pentagon. You want his service, pay for it. If you are incompetent, don't blame the competent.
Ward, I think that Elon is a prick, but, I have to acknowledge that he can do stuff others cant! Building a car factory in Germany in 2 years, is a feat, that would proberly have taken others 4-6 years, if he is going to build the 6. gen fighters it will proberly NOT take 20 years to have combat ready???
Next time Russia sends a letter to the UN stating it will invade another country unless the US stops effing around, maybe we shouldn't just laugh it off.
Russia was not treated very good, the world could have been a very different place had the United States helped Russia as we did with China. It would have been more desirable to have Russia as an ally than chi na and russia becoming aligned
Maybe if the US had not forced Ukraine to return all of its Soviet nuclear weapons back to Russia in exchange for US protection Russia would not have invaded Ukraine.
His concept of free speech? And what does Ukraine have to do with the Pentagon? Also, didn't Google back out of a contract with the Pentagon? And Amazon sued to be included on a bid won by Microsoft?
Your style of presentation is excellent. To the point, clear, with no extraneous embellishment. You threaded a needle discussing this topic and I’m very impressed. Keep up the great work!
I agree with you on most things you said about Elon But the General is wrong about Freedom of Speech Elon is right The general needs to read our Constitution and its Bill of Rights he swore to defend But Elon is a genius and all men have flaws
Yeah, I could see where DOD, the Military Industrial Complex, and the entrenched Political Class might have problems dealing with somebody with scruples... And who wasnt a social liar, i.e. what you critisized as lacking Social skills.. I dont always agree with what Elon thinks, but I always suspect him of good intentions. Cant say the same about your country club...
You're right. Are government has committed atrocities, interfered with many elections of other countries, and Elon Musk has not. It's funny how this guy equates Musk not letting the military control him, equals Musk controlling the military.
True, the guy could cure cancer and these clowns would still be whining about how he didn’t announce it euphemistically enough. Meanwhile the average critic is addicted to lying and has never achieved anything. Talk is cheap, actions are all that matter.
Ward … I sincerely like your efforts and insights as this channel is very informative. I may not understand or agree with everything Elon does or says and no one person in ANY country should have implicit power. However when we have other nefarious greedy oligarchs that seem to have no regard for anything other than their wealth or power combined with a government that can no longer be trusted Elon Musk is a godsend in at least showing some compassion and common sense for humanity.
Probably no one should have the kind of power a Musk, Gates, or Bezos has. But for the time being, I'm just glad there is one that seems inclined to push back against the Washington machine sometimes.
@swampfox4425 that may be so, I can't possibly know the guy. But his selfish financial interest would be much better served just doing what the Washington blob tells him to. His desire to put the damper on Ukraine escalation and his push to widen the Overton window of acceptable speech on Twitter have both measurably hurt him financially. He is now getting a lower grade form of the lawfare directed at orangeman, illustrated by the Delaware judge nullifying his compensation package with Tesla, and all the speech enforcement mechanisms of the blob (ACLU, SPLC, etc) scaring all of his advertisers off. If he just bent the knee, allowed the feds to get their backdoor into Twitter back, he could be part of the club and make much more money. Yet he doesn't do that.
Fine opinion piece. The US government cannot leave US companies unprotected and exposed in international relations to try to establish foreign policy. That is a government not a business function. They have neither the authority, the mandate, the skill, the Intel, the range of interest or the power to do so. Musk is guessing. The Congress is deficient here. This shouldn't be on Musk's plate. That it is - is ludicrous.
Love it. When it suits to bail his companies out, he's very much pro government, but after that, my rights are being violated. Mr. Free Speech that writes articles for the CCP's official online censor organization. You have been duped.
I really enjoy this channel and this is the first time that I se how limited our thinking can be when it comes to world peace. Sure we here are about combating the enemy but other Elon Musk and a few military advisers may think that enabling a country to go on the offensive on Russian soil would not get us closer to a victory. I recommend anyone to watching Elon speaking/explaining instead of getting info from unreliable sources.
I should add, Elon said “ SpaceX is an American company and If given an executive order by whoever is the president of the USA at the time, I would comply regardless of the consequences” On the latest Lex Fremont podcast regarding war in Ukraine Palestine and civilization conflicts in Mars.
The real question here is why didn't any of our US 'defense partners' have anything to offer the Ukrainians? Why was all their hardware useless in the face of Russian electronic warfare? What would have happened if US troops needed to use that hardware in a modern engagement with the same electronic warfare opposition, would it also have not worked then? Have we paid out billions of dollars in tax payer money in cost+ contracts to these 'defense partners' for useless technology? Did these 'defense partners' knowingly equip our service men and women with technology that they knew would never work on a modern battlefield, or did they do it unknowingly? I would argue the answer to whether the 'defense partner' tech is useless is readily apparent in the typically glacial-paced DOD's very quick pace in contracting with SpaceX for StarShield. As far as Elon goes I'm shocked he was able to help at all, imagine for a moment you were a rich person and you decided to invest your money in the private company SpaceX. One day the CEO announces that he is going to help one side in a war and is going to use capital from your investment to do it. In the process he is going to risk every dollar you invested by pitting the SpaceX multi-billion dollar investment in the Starlink satellite network against the cyber warfare capability of a large nation and it's allies who, if successful, might disable or de-orbit all the satellites. By the way, the CEO is going to take this risk with your money for free. How would you respond? This idea that Elon could help Ukraine with other people's money indefinitely and regardless of the risks for no renumeration is childish.
Yes, the potential risk to shareholder value definitely outweighs the deaths caused by denying service. Are you sure you're not in the Military Industrial Complex?
there are other levers that could have been used to convince Elon to stop his support, from personal threats to him and his family, remember how fsb love their poisons, and to his business in China, remember there is a Tesla factory there, China only pretends to not be involved in this and not supporting russia, pretty sure they supply whatever the orc army needs, or stuff they need to build what they need, also they can easily make Tesla life in China very difficult for no reason at all if Elon would continue to openly support Ukraine those starlink dishes and cost for the bandwidth are peanuts, not for a moment I'd believe that was the real reason
So a couple things that I thought you glossed over in a weird way. First, X is the platform that is most attempting to provide a true free speech public commons, which the U.S. government is technically supposed to be used to maintain. Sadly our government is focused on widespread censorship on any topic of any public interest, and so it is up to a private person to legally battle with the federal government to maintain free speech in their private space. So when you say “his form of free speech” you might be the type of person who thinks that God didn’t give us these inalienable rights, in which case it makes sense why you are still so connected to the military industry.
As a very rural resident, I, for one, appreciate Starlink; it's the only viable internet service out here that has decent service speeds/ connectivity. I pay for it every month... Ukraine... doesn't. And if Musk doesn't want to fund war or have his tech used that way, I don't see the issue.
@@WardCarroll 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 Fun fact. At the beginning of the Ukraine war when Russia was launching their tactical rockets at civilian targets. Ukraine, who had already been gifted Starlink at a military level from Elon, re-coordinated the satalite guidance systems for the Russian rockets. Results, eight very powerful rockets once airborne did an immediate turnaround and were redirected back at the exact laughing pad coordinates of which they came. And they were not peaceful non destructive landings either. Starlink was said to be the hub to take over the internet, cable and telephone industries, but it has been weaponzied just like anything else. There are 11k starlink satalites currently orbit and the plan is to end up with 40k of them. If you are on earth, you truly have no freedoms or privacy. This is why governments and elites are designing and building their own little off world sanctuaries.
This was extremely well balanced and non-partisan. Much appreciated. My general thought on Musk's role in Ukraine is that he gets way too much criticism as a deflection away from the failure of Western governments and leaders. If Ukraine's supposed allies hadn't spent the past two years bickering over every new package and agonizingly-slow-rolling military support, and instead had just given Ukraine what it needed from Day 1, this war might have been over long ago. Instead we gave Putin plenty of time to regroup and dig in. Western leaders utterly failed to capitalize on Ukrainian bravery and Russian incompetence, and if they ultimately lose the war, I suspect there are many Western leaders who would gladly use Musk as a scapegoat instead of owning up to their own failure.
11:09 Tech built for peace means being used for war. Nobel had the same problem. 12:30 The idea that if Ukraine does not stop Russia that the US needs to is stupid. This whole dam war was started by the UN wanting Ukraine to join with NATO. Despite that it agreed that it would not do this. Also, that the acquisition of Ukraine would be viewed as a provocation to Russia. On top of that, the oppression of the Donbass region by the Ukraine government was another reason that Russia intervened. Finally. we could have seen this conflict resolved if the UN hadn't encouraged them to keep fighting.
Great comment grounded in REALITY. While this was a very good video, it is biased and not grounded in any kind of real world common sense angle..more or less anti-Russia without addressing the true causes of this war. The USA gets a pass..
I can certainly empathize with Musk on the starlink topic. My and your pocket book are also being drained for funding to Ukraine. Though we oppose Putin’s war what is the end game? Feels like the war is good for Ukraine leaders and power brokers as well.
Musk was never "funding" anything for Ukraine. Hence the uproar when he whimsically cut service to certain areas. During that period, all connections needed to be paid for with receivers bought outright. Musk is full of shit if he says he was ever funding anything.
Brilliant video. I feel like you should have mentioned the time Elon personally saved the Black Sea Fleet. This is a major issue. When the Pentagon called Elon and he said "Yeah I'm in regular contact with Putin and the Kremlin" that should have triggered some sort of change. Can you imagine if the CEO of Raytheon said he's regularly in contact with the Chinese government? The CEO of any defense contractor taking briefings from the Kremlin should be a critical issue that is discussed daily until it's solved. But we live in the post facts world where the majority of America is far more concerned with Taylor Swift.
We also have the single most inept procurement process in the history of mankind, tied to a slavish relationship with a three company MIC that literally dictates US foreign policy decades in the future. So no, those people get to demand nothing from a company whose products they use freely outside their ponderous dinosaur structures. What they, and you, don't like is that they don't control him the way they do Northrop execs... The US MIC gave itself no option, but wants to cry about not making the rules anymore, meanwhile it is dying under the weight of seven decades of self inflicted wounds. Yet they use buzzwords like lean, agile, and disruptive every day. It is a 900B tragicomedy. And you just defended it... ___
A friend of mine has Starlink in North central Nebraska he is now getting 1gbps down connections with a latency of 25ms, his uplink speeds are over 300mbps. I would put it in here but I have trees blocking a good signal path.
I don't get anywhere near that on a cable hardline. Monopolies are fun! I just got bumped up to about 210 down max but still averaging 130 right now, and 11 up, about 15 or 20 up max.
Hire a professional tree climber to get up there and trim off the top of the tree and mount the dish up there. Make a flat platform out of thick sheetmetal that bolts onto the tree.
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Howard Hughes
told the federal government and the DOD that, he will deal with them at his own discretion .
@skyboys9814 - That worked for a little while, But when the feds decided to sick the SEC on him, it really slowed hom down... That was so unecessary, and Howard Hughes soon found ways to occupy the agressive ones at the upper levels of the SEC .....,
@skyboys9814 And that could be what prompted the SEC to go after him... Howard Hughes did have access to considerable wealth, after his father passed away, and he grew that money to much larger levels before long... But to tell the DOD and the Feds that "He'll deal with them at his OWN discretion" , Well that usually doesn't sit very well with some pretty powerful people... Generally a BAD idea.... If Howard Hughes was sharp enough to realise what kind of power and authority he was up against, he would have humerd those people with genuine signs of compliance of what they wanted him to produce... And for those who refused to do that, well the stories of several of the previously established gangsters, pretty much completed the full circle they were headed to... Al Capone was perhaps one of the most notorious of the Ruthless killers the authorities were after, and finally aprehended and duely processed , then convicted and sentenanced...
This is a very heavy subject, but Elong Musty NEEDS to stop meddling in International affairs with foreign powers... Otherwise He could be one of the next High Profile arrests made by the authorities....
If the DoD wants to control the geo fencing and unfettered use of Starlink, then pay for it.
What other US defense contractor provides services for free, before a contract is signed? Where is the praise for Starlink providing free Starlink to Ukraine in the first place? Would Boreing or LockMart have done this?
Yeah, don't remember any free F-18s or F-35s being sent to Ukraine. Or, indeed, any at all.
Nothing is “free” to us Americans.
Nothing is free. That is a fallacy we need to get rid of.
@@LTVoyager You're right. Starlink providing free service cost them a lot.
Amen sir. Extremely well said!
Nuanced coverage of polarizing figures like Musk is hard to come by. It’s important to understand opposing views independently and ideally before deciding to agree or disagree with them. The world need more of this sort of coverage.
I admire Elon Musk's intellect, however his narcissistic personality makes me nervous.
Agreed. I think in this case though, it's pretty clear Elon Muskovite is a ketamine-addicted edgelord whose ego makes him an easy intelligence target.
He's another Ghoul, from HELL. "You don't have to be smart in America, just so long as you can hire someone who is" *Ted Knight MTM show.
I've had Tesla stock for many years, and I've bought more over time. Musk makes the Tesla ride a thrill ride, and I don't mean in a good way. I wish Musk was less public. Thanks for you comment. Well taken.
Difficult to be nuanced when discussing Elon, who is likely the least nuanced person in the world.
That was a fine line you walked there. good quality for an officer to have.
by fine line you mean he didn't go into the sordid details, right ?
@@ashleyobrien4937 He avoided dabbling in convenient misinformation, which many Musk detractors do. He also went pretty soft on Musk's recent Twitter timeline, opting to simply sum it up as him "trying to placate Russia". It's much, much worse than that. It would have maybe illustrated the risk better, but it would also have made the video too much about Musk and less about the issue of tech monopolies in key defense infrastructure (this goes back to the intro of the video Grumman).
Tact, acumen, and diplomacy are any young officer's best friends upon entering the service. Ward has had them in spades ...most of his career, lol!
@@emmettjones5165 as someone who has suffered over the years for my ‘free speech’ I appreciate the ability to say what you mean without becoming the issue yourself. Speaking truth to power comes in many forms and it is not without some pride to see a side of the military that is not often shown displayed here; a sound factual workmanlike assessment of reality that informs and doesn’t enflame (is that a word?). So common elsewhere to see the word ‘professional’ misused as a cover for bad acts and actors, but our officer corp seems to truly have the best features for their purpose intact. Musk is a vital, loose-cannon. I’m thankful for the fact that he must interface with our best in this realm.
It was mostly factually incorrect, actually. And his snotty, superior attitude is downright repulsive and more than a bit ironic. Not to mention a great demonstration of Dunning-Kruger in action.
I live in Central FL. It seems there is a SpaceX launch every few days.
Current cadence is every three days including launches from Vandenberg.
@@materiallistprollc7741That's interesting. Vandenberg must be a lot busier than the announced launch roster.
Indeed there is. It has gotten so frequent that I don't even look out the window every time anymore lol.
I will for a falcon heavy tho
I thought they moved to TX
Imagine listening to this report, but it’s 1980.
Or even 2010
It is kind of crazy how wildly the landscape changed in the last 40 years, and without a major war as the causal factor, like WW1 and WW2.
Agreed. I was 10 in 1980, awareness of the Cold War was just beginning to seep in. Imagine the State Department in 1980 receiving a telex from Ukraine SSR, at the time a state in the Soviet Union. "Red Army units have crossed our internal border with intent of removing local government. Send help."
@@emmettjones5165"But keep it on the down-low. We don't want to start WW3."
Honestly, in 1980 with USSR still at full strength, they probably would have thrown Ukraine to the wolves, as with Hungary in '56 and the Czechs in '68. (and the Poles and Balts generally)
@@MM22966wasn't Ukraine already part of the USSR at that point? It'd be more like declaring martial law than invading a sovereign nation. Still scary to consider nonetheless.
Excellent overview of Musk without the extraneous BS. Most appreciated.
There were several snuck premises in the video. I have no problem with Elon expressing concern about escalation of war, use of his technology, and so forth. It's not as if the powers that be have been truthful, reliable, honest, or efficient (especially the past couple of years). Naive to think his technology won't be used for violence? Hardly. Even clubs and knives, stretching back to their invention thousands of years ago, have been used for evil. Elon is smart enough to know tech of any kind will be abused. That doesn't mean he has to fund it personally, which was happening for quite a while. Now they're jealous that he has succeeded to such an extraordinary degree in so many realms? Elon has visions of greater things for humanity - no wonder the politicos, lackeys, hacks, and hangers-on hate him.
@@johnd2895 He is afraid to address the main cause of war which is RUSSIA. That indicates that he is not a free man and beholden to RUSSIA. All his "peacekeeping" is a red herring to help russia.
With BILLIONS OF TAX MONEY PER YEAR(750B) FOR DEFENSE, and you think ELON MUSK is the BAD guy? The "F" military should use their own "F" satellites
@@dukenukem8381 If that was true, he wouldn't have saved Ukraine on day 2 of the war when their command & control had been shock-n-awed.
If it had been me, I would have given them a month to come up with the money to pay for service, then shut it down if they failed.
@@dukenukem8381 The main cause of the major wars since the second has always been the US ambition for global hegemony and this attempt at taking Ukraine ( with it's millions of ethnic Russians ) from the Russian sphere of influence was so arrogant that the Russians simply could not believe it and apparently kept thinking they could manage a peaceful solution right up to the end. Turns out America would almost always risk nuclear escalation if it comes to choosing between giving up influence/power and taking a step back from global domination.
7:45 there's no way the drone pictured is being flown via Starlink. It's clearly via a point-to-point, line-of-sight radio link. Larger drones could be flown with Starlink, but the US had the Predator and Reaper before Starlink, so Starlink is clearly not "required"
I don't know but it could be flown via a stationary relay station with Starlink.
There is obviously no Starlink-transiver on the drone itself.
Nit picker
Starlink are used for Maritime drones, only these have power budget to carry current terminals.
Russia is jamming drones so they need to be autonomous
If Pentagon is humble enough to beg Elon then they absolutely desperately need his Starlink. Enough said.
It’s not OK to tell somebody that they have to give their technology to another country. If the government wants to support another country, then they should contract for those services.
Theres alot behind the scenes that even @Ward Carroll isn't privy to
How do you they have not compensated Musk? If not directly, then through tax breaks.
Is it ok to tell someone to give you their technology in return for yours and then refuse to hand yours over... America?
@@icefly_ Its a racing certainty that there's a lot behind the scenes almost nobody is aware of 🙄
@@charlesmartin1121 I would argue that Ukraine hasn't paid a dime for the service so I don't see any problem with a provider stopping providing. The US Def Dept. isn't paying for it either (specifically Starlink) so why should it be up to them what Musk does with his services. (I understand you quip about taxes etc... but that has nothing to do with the service provided to Ukraine).
SpaceX asked the DOD to compensate them for the Ukrainian Starlink use, and the DOD refused. At that point it's kind of disingenuous to act outraged when a private company decides that it doesn't want to foot the bill for a foreign war.
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Fun fact. At the beginning of the Ukraine war when Russia was launching their tactical rockets at civilian targets. Ukraine, who had already been gifted Starlink at a military level from Elon, re-coordinated the satalite guidance systems for the Russian rockets. Results, eight very powerful rockets once airborne did an immediate turnaround and were redirected back at the exact laughing pad coordinates of which they came. And they were not peaceful non destructive landings either.
Starlink was said to be the hub to take over the internet, cable and telephone industries, but it has been weaponzied just like anything else. There are 11k starlink satalites currently orbit and the plan is to end up with 40k of them. If you are on earth, you truly have no freedoms or privacy.
This is why governments and elites are designing and building their own little off world sanctuaries.
i have been saying this for some time too. the pro ukraine crowd is quick to badmouth Musk, but never calls out the US government. even sadder is the fact that a privet company has capabilities better than the US government (and EU nations) to support the war in ukraine. at times it feels like ukraine has become a welfare state that cries anytime they don't get something for free.
No, Elon told you that's what happened. USAID not only paid for the terminals, they also paid for the shipping. SpaceX was awarded a contract to continue providing service to the US military into 2030 and that includes operations in Ukraine.
@@joedoe6444Ok comrade, thanks for your input.
Elon is not a twit 🐦
Very good commentary, by the way, Elon is very concerned about space junk as well, so all his satellites use their thrusters to maintain orbit, ( which because of the altitude do experience drag, ( just like the ISS), and need to be re- boosted and positioned once in a while). They have enough fuel for around 5 years of active use. After useful life, there is just enough fuel left to de-orbit his satellites, and they are specifically designed to burn up completely upon re-entry. I believe he said he has 14 early satellites that ran out of fuel too soon, or got damaged, and will remain in orbit uncontrolled for around 3 more yrs before coming down on their own. Out of his 6000 satellites, that’s not bad. One of his visions for his starship, once operational, is to possibly collect up those bad satellites. The guy is a visionary character for sure.
I spent my life as a mover and shaker in global manufacturing, and have never seen any companies as productive as his, and his people.
Well said and thank you for the added information sir. I concur!
Starship is not going to be used to collect satellites. The physics, fuel and orbital dynamics make any nonsense about collecting space debris sheer folly. 40 years in the space industry, seen all kinds of proposals to do so and they all come to the same dead end.
I’ll just say that it’s nice to have such a high-profile defense contractor who DOESN’T want World War 3.
thank-you
Its also nice to have a defense contractor who weighs Putin's advice...directly. Imagine if during WW2 North American's CEO chatted with Hitler from time to time?
@@badlt5897 Good Point... I don't like when a person in a position that he was in, arbitrarily converses on matters of our National defense, with the adversaries of our country and/or our allies... E.M. stepped WAY beyond his level of authority, by conversing & acting ; as a Personal Puppet for Putin...
@@michaelmartinez1345 you are confused. It’s not national defense, it’s global offense!
@@allenahil That is an amusing comment that You made about Your views of defense and offense... What is interesting is the way You immediately assumed that I'm confused of what those words mean .... Defense is a method to repulse / repel Offenseive forces... Your view of what E.M. has done by aiding our adversaries, seems to be one of some sort of a folk hero ..
That individual is little more than a communist - totalitarian sympathiser, like Jane Fondle was during the police action in S.E. Asia...
The USCG has installed Star Link on our cutters. Pretty good connectivity.
Nice, that is a military system, and cheap too.
Nice thumbnail photo
@@tedmoss WTF are you talking about? Starlink isnt a military system and neither is the coast guard. Why is there so much nonsense being bandied about in the comments?
Good enough for Ukraine @@lu544
@@thomgizziz My CAC card and my poor health care treatment says different Bro.
You sure do have an interesting way to describe Musk. Adjectives and adverbs say a lot about a person. You have a real passive aggressive stance towards him. That indicates you lean strongly to the left. That being the case, you make a mockery of that jacket and your time served.
Yes he does, this video sure isn’t going to help him grow his channel. I only recently subscribed, now I will likely unsubscribe…I don’t like tyrants or people who support tyrants.
It’s a neocon/neolib/MIC/Boomer take.
I feel like Dick Cheney could’ve narrated this.
So out of touch with the real reality.
That game can be played by anyone, you are proof, please relax
This is why one person who can't be voted in or out should not have so much power.
This is a really good TH-cam channel.
It is a top 2 YT channel! The other being Alex Hollings, who Ward recommended a couple years ago.
Everyone should be thankful to have Ward around.
He is extremely good, very measured, and never codes to conjecture!
@@roberthevern6169 Agree, both Ward and Alex (Sandboxx News) are absolute units. And don't forget the Mover & "Donkey" Show :)
I have never purchased a Tesla. I certainly cannot fathom having the means to go to space but Elon is a very interesting character. It seems most of the people in his arena are so used to being dishonest as a standard business practice that they have a very hard time with him. He will say what he thinks and listens to your argument intently. He will act on it if makes sense. But he has a very good ability to see through all the fluff and around the point arguments. It's a very strange approach sadly in a position where you would expect being direct and straight to the point would be status quo.
Lol. I guess you missed the Don Lemon interview.
@@criticaleventif you think somehow the Don Lemon interview went poorly for Elon, that I would guess you have a very biased opinion. Don Lemon is an absolute joke, and got put right in his place
@@criticalevent You have a lot to learn about advertising. Keeping in the public eye requires controversy. Teaching people to think for themselves is an unrewarding project, but if you are going to take on the most difficult challenges, it helps to be the worlds richest man by a very long way. The proof is in the pudding.
@@tedmoss Just to sum it up: Advertising = Pure Evil. I mean, just look at Google...
@@criticalevent You mean the Don Lemon hit job where he reduced everything to race?
I dont think it makes sense to use Mach number when talking about speeds outside the atmosphere
It's just a reminder that you've spent your life below Mach 1, and he hasn't. Using units of measure familiar to you, even in situations where they strictly speaking don't apply, is normal human behavior. Just be kind, and interpret his "Mach 25" in orbit as "about 11x as fast as I went in an F-14 not in orbit, at an altitude where Mach numbers DO apply".
It's like saying a building is as tall as 4 football fields. It's just choosing a unit of measure that some people can relate to, to help visualize it. Last time I checked, football fields weren't 100 yards tall, or even had any height associated with them, actually being a plane which height does not apply to (or a very plane-like section of a very large sphere....I mean oblate spheroid....I mean geoid). Some people would nitpick that a football field is 120 yards rather than 100. There is always something to nitpick.
@@EfficientRVerits just when I heard it, the image of my fluid dynamics professor frowning dissaprovingly came flashing to my mind! 😆
It's just a ballpark figure of relative speed.
You know perfectly well what he means by it.
It’s relevant when you have to re-enter.
P.s. gonna have to watch this twice.
Great video. Some good information in a sea of hyperbolic clickbait
Superb coverage of a complex story. Thanks!
Couldn't get an informative factual report like that from anywhere else I've found. Thanks
Some of the information is outdated however. It needs a follow up.
Yes exactly - I'm a big Musk fan and he is doing great work but I'm not ignorant of his flaws. He is also playing a sensitive chess game with the the US government. Ward has become a balanced voice of reason with insider knowledge. Keep up the good work.
I understand @tedmoss, I can remember when all L1011's became worthless overnight, but Ward provides a breath and depth to the topic and doesn't try and spin it.
Ward, keep up being a positive force for good in the world
When I was at Tesla, I drank beer with Elon in the auto shop after hours with some other engineers... he is, in person, the same guy you see in interviews. And, he does indeed have some Asperger's Syndrome (it takes one to know one.) But his beer choice - Heineken - well, even I know to avoid skunk piss. And as I am about to click the Comment button, this will go up and out over my Starlink panel, which has brought color to this rural, old, slow DSL black and white world of the ranch. What was once 1Mb/s download is now 125-250 Mb/s
He stated he doesn't drink beer ??
Given that he's packed on a few pounds in the years since, it's probably a good idea to cut out beer. But back in 2008, yes he did indeed.@@elmerhuyard3565 ...then again, so have I and I cut beer intake way down. Yeah, and bread, snacks, cookies....
absolutely. Heinekin is skunky beer.
Free speech is free speech & only probability of truth decides how reliable it is.
UN said in 50s world will end of environmenttal crises in 80s ...It didnt ...same story happened every decade. Clearly UN & WEF r liers not R8 wingers.
UN says women r victums & oppressed...Extensive stats show they have highest hapiness index. Clearly UN r liers
My college was in the same town with a major NY engineering university. I dated many brainy engineer students - some might call them 'geeks', but I finally found young men whom I clicked with. I eventually married one. Looking back I now realize that many of those wonderful talented young men showed signs of undiagnosed Asbergers - which is what made them geniuses. I adore Elon. He has all the characteristics that make a great man
Starting to get Howard Hughes vibes with Elon.
Starting?
Hi Ward - your insight is thoughtful and appreciated as usual. I do think, however, that there's more to this than just the war in Ukraine. Musk is privy to information on political operations here - operations that the public isn't meant to see - both through his government contracting with NASA fighting the established beltway mainstays to get a foot in the door, and of course through his acquisition of Twitter and all the backchannel communications between the political parties and the prior Twitter leadership. He is a private citizen, entitled to his own beliefs, and yes happens to own and operate some massively important companies and services. Like it or not, he also has a responsibility to shareholders and investors to show a return on their trust in him. I'm definitely a fan of Musk on many fronts, but I understand the he's a hard person to nail down and prone to change his mind seemingly overnight. Should any one person / company have this kind of independent power over something so vital to a country's war effort? Probably not. But the fact is every other American is free to do what he did, but they haven't. So in a way you just have to roll with it. I am a fine of the Pentagon investing in the purchase of SpaceX hardware to develop a system they own though - that will take a lot of the guesswork of things like this, plus compensate SpaceX for their expenditures so far.
"But the fact is every other American is free to do what he did, but they haven't." - Nailed it
@9:10 there is an important missing piece of information here... The cutoff wasn't a decision by Musk, it was a software update implemented by SpaceX engineers to comply with a completely unrelated demand by the FCC that SpaceX not provide service in countries that it didn't have operational agreements with.
The digital FCC map they tied into the service categorized the occupied oblasts of Ukraine as "Russia" so when the software update went out the dishes in those region cut themselves off.
The fact that this narrative of "Musk turned off starlink after direction from Putin" is still floating around is why Elons insistence that PR is unnecessary will be his downfall.
The Truth and The Narrative rearly travel in the same car. If it doesn't fit the narrative don't mention it 😯😯
If he does not think PR matters why did he buy Twitter?
@@charlesmartin1121 because he wanted to say wtf he wants without anyone being able to stop him. PR is the opposite of Elon on Twitter👍
@@kschleic9053 Really? Tell that to Don Lemon.
@@charlesmartin1121 Lemon by name, Lemon by nature.
Thanks for the update
And this is why government owned networks are so important. It's the further the support of the nation not a private individual.
How about a breakdown on Boeing defense contracts being used to, can I say subsidizing, it's dismal performance in commercial aviation? Are the defense contracts holding the FAA hostage in regulating its commercial aviation failures? How does this affect National Defense preparedness and futurity? Since this is a non-political content website (thank you!) I won't ask if red vs. blue conflicts determines what compromises the DOD has to make in procurement. Outstanding, Thank You
i would look at cheney's ties to boeing, did he personally profit from the move? whether it was necessary or not, that should always be a question with these insane government contracts.
With BILLIONS OF TAX MONEY PER YEAR(750B) FOR DEFENSE, and you think ELON MUSK is the BAD guy? The "F" military should use their own "F" satellites
When it comes to defense contracting, there is no red vs blue. Both parties only vote for what makes them personally the most green.
This was a great report. Very well done and informative.👍
Excellent SITREP. Thanks shipmate!
Unpredictable whims? You mean tough negotiator!
Musk is a toxic psycho. The company would probably do better without him. He has created or invented NOTHING. He's a smoke show.
I recommended to DOD almost 20 yrs ago that they needed a LEO sat system in order to reduce latency to meet certain needs. They didn't green light it but I got a cool t-shirt, coffee mug and a big old BZ for the effort ;-)
The technology (specifically "reusable launchers") wasn't ready yet. A LEO satellite system would have cost 10-20x as much to launch, since the satellites would have been larger (thus fewer per launch) and each launch would have been stunningly more expensive.
IOW, great ideas are useless before the technology is ready to make it work.
@@RonJohn63 True but, with all do respect, when developing future complex tech systems you don't have to wait till all required technologies meet all baseline requirements. The most effective way is to first identify the need, CONOPS and system requirements, then assess current state of all underlying tech to meet those sys requirements, identify what's not currently good enough or what is cost prohibitive, look at future tech and market trends, and start designing, building, verifying, validating, etc. using what's currently available and do iterative cycles of that whole process - swapping out and re-integrating subsystem components as their relative tech advances and matures. The way things are currently done in many instances, and what you're proposing, i.e. waiting till every aspect is ready to go, is one reason why many areas of development fall behind - or actually have fallen behind. Of course, the whole funding/acquisition process has a significant contribution to slowing things down but it is what it is, until someone can make that better.
You gotta have vision, foresight and the creativity to put it together in your mind first and then on paper, before you even connect one wire or write one line of code. The LEO sat comms net is only one of many concepts that nobody had the vision to start early work on. But that case was basically due to a lack of clear understanding of the impact on meeting upcoming mission requirements, due to network latency and dropouts, on data throughput, and that in turn due to the nature of underlying network protocols and software algorithms. All documented from projects I began to propose/design 20 years ago. Best regards.
Thanks for your relatively unbiased report. Most don't even try. I think this resolved in the right way.
"relatively"
i'm curious as to what engineering you think musk contributed to in paypal, space-x or tesla? my understanding is thiel brought musk into paypal to speed up the process of paypal being purchased, while trashing musk's own financial software, being a money investor is not the same as being an engineer, even if that's what your degree says.
thiel is another government contract holder, palantir, who should be investigated.
you leave out a very important detail, tesla frames are built with russian aluminum, so the heart of musk's networth, tesla stock prices are directly tied to business interests in russia and china(batteries), not exactly someone who should be in the trusted chain of national defense.
He contribution was scam artist money laundering schemes.
Three trolls agree with the BS troll.
Musk: "Hey, I can't keep doing this shit for free."
Pentagon: *crickets*
Musk: *flips the off switch*
Pentagon: "Hey, hey, hey....hey...that's not fair!"
true
Musk's genius is in marketing, manipulation, and narcisist self-promotion. Kara Swisher has this guy nailed.
Recognized for his success and "the richest man in the world" by the media is "a flawed genius?"
We need more flawed geniused, I think.
Hey Ward, any insight or care to comment why all the Commanders are being relieved of duty lately. Seems pretty strange to me from the outside looking in
When Musk is gone, he is gonna be hard to replaced.Dude is living my dreams.
You don't want his life.
Right on! Elon is quality!
there is almost no hope if Elon dies tbh. We've entities like WEF, Blackrock or worst George Soros who does nothing but destructions. Bill Gates even thinks the world has too much population.
One of the best balanced and honest commentaries of Elon Musk I've seen. He's clearly a brilliant businessman with a solid technical background that has built something special in both Space-X and Tesla, but sometimes he does things that no one can explain.
If they are without principles or scientific education, how could they?
I can explain it....Defense contractors and deep state actors don't have him by the balls like they do everyone else. So they rely on people's ignorance to trash talk him because "Oragne man bad" That's all this stuff ever does.
First & foremost a hard working brilliant engineer.
He's bringing me a gratification I never expected to receive, it's been delayed so long. Means and opportunity rarely occur together. He is actually doing it. Great name btw. @@helmshardover
Very nice of Elon Musk to allow the US military to use something that works!
I seem to recall Starlink was not available over Ukraine before the war started. With the request from the Ukraine government, Starlink coverage was approved/allowed and Spacex donated terminals for their civilian citizens, to my understanding, to use since their telecommunications infrastructure was degraded by Russia when it invaded. Musk/Spacex knew(probably) their terminals would end up in the hands of the military since they weren't physically controlling them after the donation. At the time of the invasion, I think Starlink was the only, widely operational and successful satellite internet constellation. Hindsight is 20/20, but maybe the Pentagon could have funded a Starlink competitor like Nasa does with Boeing Starliner? We'd still be in the same situation now. Just my ramblings.
Musk's $1.8 Billion StarShield contract with NRO is an interesting read. Reporting on the topic indicates the program is part of SDA - apparently a revival of the " Brilliant Pebbles" concept from the Reagan era (SDI/Star Wars). Thanks, Ward
I assume it’s a small sat SAR constellation that can do both space domain awareness and ground. Fits with the tech stack as starlink is all beam forming
@@dmacpher Apparently so. Imaging was also mentioned in the (reuters) newser. COTS imaging gear is really good nowadays - Sony sensors and Canon/Optron lenses come to mind. Years ago, the Dragonfly Array used Canon lenses to image previously unseen ultra-low luminance deep space objects. Cool stuff.
@@dmacpher It looks like 2 Starshields were up on the recent Starlink launch.
@@sneakerset optical doesn’t flat pack well unfortunately, so I don’t it’s that. But yeah sensors themselves have come a long way.
@@dmacpherGood point.
Sounds like Elon gives more defense department heads sleepless nights than just me.
You should worry more about Vladimir, Kim, Xi, and others, and also that shitgibbon.
I love your fairly unbiased reporting and great information. some minor corrections: LEO satellites don't need ion thrusters for anything to do with their orbit; the launch rocket puts them into orbit, giving them the mach 25 speed. the use the thrusters to spread out in space in relation to each other.
Actually it's just to have more orbit-maintenance and maneuvering capability per pound of fuel/thrusters that you pay to get into orbit. Better specific impulse. What you use that for, is not what makes you choose it. The fact that it will remain functional for several times as long, is the reason to use it.
LEO satellites do encounter some drag, so need orbit maintenance burns just to stay in the same orbit.
Stating that a satellite flys a Mach whatever is a moot point as at that altitude there is no air thus the speed of sound and therefore “Mach” is irrelevant. Try stating the speed of a satellite in mph.
Correction to your correction... SpaceX satellites are low enough in low earth orbit that they actually do encounter drag. Without ion thrusters to periodically boost their orbits, they would deorbit and burn in the atmosphere within months. It's a good thing, as faulty satellites won't remain in orbit as space junk for long.
Correction to your correction... SpaceX satellites are low enough in low earth orbit that they actually do encounter drag. Without ion thrusters to periodically boost their orbits, they would deorbit and burn in the atmosphere within months.
Excellent point. Bravo!
I suspect another consideration for Musk and Starlink, is that Russia may have the capability to start systematically disabling Starlink platforms using anti-satellite directed energy weapons, should Putin give the order.
So the bottom line is that Musk was providing a service to Ukraine and Ukraine wasn’t paying for it. So now the Pentagon is paying for it. Why is Musk portrayed as an erratic oddball in this video?
Thanks for a very accurate portrayal of the realities of Musk/DOD interactions.
Your excellent reporting should have more reach
IMO.
Thanks from Idaho, Ward!
It's excellent reporting, which is precisely why it isn't widely known.
Ward, you need to get yourself a Strat and Princeton Reverb so you can get in touch with your inner Richard Thompson!
Yay. lol
After reading his biography I am convinced he is the smartest guy since Einstein. Maybe since forever. Totally amazing thought processes that have revolutionized almost everything he has tried.
No, he didn't co-found PayPal. He came along later, and when they got rid of him, part of the deal was to refer to him as a co-founder. The hagiography surrounding Mr. Musk is vastly untrue.
well done - great story telling format - as you did with Gaza - love your channel 💫
Only thing I would add is that the front line geofencing was to stop both sides from using the service as Russia also had the terminals. Ukraine was also using starlink for its naval drones which put them offside if they allowed it knowingly without a waiver from the DoD
Yes, this wasn't mentioned. SpaceX found it was on tricky ground legally if they allowed Starlink to be used on russian occupied territory. Thus the way out of this problem was to contract these areas out to the control of the Pentagon (which wasn't instantaneous - surprise, surprise). If you don't like the way it was handled blame US law and the Pentagon, SpaceX was simply trying to be in compliance. Of course our government allowed SpaceX and thus Musk to take all the heat. Pretty predictable and disgusting.
@@StormyDog to add - the biggest issue was the fact that starlink was being used for remote guidance of offensive weapons (the marine suicide drones). That changes its classification.
Update for starlink on March 8, 2024, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted SpaceX conditional approval to use E-band radio waves to increase the capacity of Starlink's low Earth orbit broadband constellation.
1) This will allow Starlink to have four times the bandwidth.
2) Recently, liftoff of Starship.
This last starship launch was epic. Got to see the plasma of reentry due to the starling terminals on it.
The DoD can pay for the Starlink if they want to swing a deal, but Musk doesn't have to donate his equipment or services to another government.
Exactly.
They did. In fact they've grossly over paid for it.
@@criticalevent I think they alluded to that at the end. Ok then, he had a point.
Ukraine paid way above the going rate for their equipment and service. Musk is a mercurial individual. That has always made dealing with him problematic for anyone put in that position from employees on up the chain.
The he needs to give back the hundreds of millions he has used in tax payer money over the years to prop up all of his totally original and uniquely made by his own genius string of companies.
It is telling that other defense contractors are making Billions, and Starlink is just free...
If this was Boeing, they would demand a Billion a month or something.
Love the channel, Ward. Keep up the good work. You are becoming my 'go to' source for unbiased info.
its a parasitic rather than symbiotic relationship seems like given the profit margins these monopolies enable. Its not fair to put starlink in a position to pay or influence outcomes. The feds should pay for it if they want the stuff out there, and make the decision if the hardware will provided and how. Dangerous to let any commercial company decide such things, but not fair to make them fund it.
America is bloody lucky to have Elon Musk. Without him they'd still be relying on the Russians to get people to the ISS.
…and relying on censorious criminals to communicate.
True.
GOD you idiots talk as if SOMEBODY ELSE WOULD NOT IMMEDIATELY TAKE HIS PLACE AND BUILD VEHICLES,
but MINUS all the corruption and fraud. You keep excusing the negatives because of a few positives.
But WHEN THE NEGATIVES ARE ENTIRELY UNNECESSARY, THERE IS NO LOGICAL REASON TO DEFEND THAT OPTION.
Yes, but he is definitely what I would call the perfect example of the idiom: “double-edged sword”.
However if there hadn’t been so many political games and funding cuts to NASA - we wouldn’t be in the situation when we had to have Musk bail out our Space Program.
@@markholmphotography Really? So Boeing would have sorted it with a few more billions?
Hmmm . . . a government agency pressures one of it's regular suppliers/contractors to provide free services. This is legal?
Not supposed to be. It’s against the Anti-Deficiency Act and Federal Acquisitions Regulations (FAR).
Never happened. All BS. Do some actual reading and not on twatster
Thank you for your nuanced coverage without taking sides. But I support Elon.
Dude is a real life Tony Stark..he is probably making a real iron man suit in his basement..LOL
You can't blame a guy who is getting things done, while Pentagon couldn't, for the failures of Pentagon. You want his service, pay for it. If you are incompetent, don't blame the competent.
That's quoting Ronan Farrow.
@@WardCarroll Imagine if Lockheed had a Starlink network they would charge the US hundreds of billions of dollars for them to access.
@WardCarroll should be ,,business,,like any other business and paid for, aggree
No good deed goes unpunished
Ward "the swamp" Carrol
*Carroll
Elon "the grifter" Musk 😝
Super concise and packed into just 15 mins. Excellent report. Thanks Ward.
CC explains when they just had their fist crude (crewed) flight. lol
Ward, I think that Elon is a prick, but, I have to acknowledge that he can do stuff others cant! Building a car factory in Germany in 2 years, is a feat, that would proberly have taken others 4-6 years, if he is going to build the 6. gen fighters it will proberly NOT take 20 years to have combat ready???
I concur with everything however I don’t think Elon is a dick.
Maybe you’re the prick 🤔
I find that it's usually a prick that acuses another to be a. prick.
@@jyellowhammer Agreed, let's award title that to Mr Miller.
Next time Russia sends a letter to the UN stating it will invade another country unless the US stops effing around, maybe we shouldn't just laugh it off.
You can see videos from Ukrainian politicians they were put in power to start the wars
Maybe we should have kept the promise of President Bush and not expand nato another inch east.
Russia was not treated very good, the world could have been a very different place had the United States helped Russia as we did with China. It would have been more desirable to have Russia as an ally than chi na and russia becoming aligned
Soo many censored comnents
Maybe if the US had not forced Ukraine to return all of its Soviet nuclear weapons back to Russia in exchange for US protection Russia would not have invaded Ukraine.
Did you forget about the Ukrainian ambassador cussing out Musk? They should be much more appreciative than they are.
The West put them on a pedestal... the entitlement shows...
"How dare you cut my Welfare Benefits just because I use them to buy beer and cigarettes! My decisions are none of your business!" ~ Ukraine
It's even worse than that. They had Musk on their kill list until they thought it over.
You don't know what happened, they should have told Kiev about geofencing the Krimeea not left then in the dry.
@@Kannot2023 Elon announced it in a public statement, they cussed him after it.
His concept of free speech? And what does Ukraine have to do with the Pentagon? Also, didn't Google back out of a contract with the Pentagon? And Amazon sued to be included on a bid won by Microsoft?
Don’t know him but would welcome the chance to talk to him.
Your style of presentation is excellent. To the point, clear, with no extraneous embellishment. You threaded a needle discussing this topic and I’m very impressed. Keep up the great work!
I agree with you on most things you said about Elon But the General is wrong about Freedom of Speech Elon is right The general needs to read our Constitution and its Bill of Rights he swore to defend But Elon is a genius and all men have flaws
Elon only believes in freedom of speech that he likes.
Yeah, I could see where DOD, the Military Industrial Complex, and the entrenched Political Class might have problems dealing with somebody with scruples... And who wasnt a social liar, i.e. what you critisized as lacking Social skills..
I dont always agree with what Elon thinks, but I always suspect him of good intentions.
Cant say the same about your country club...
that ain't no shit...
You're right. Are government has committed atrocities, interfered with many elections of other countries, and Elon Musk has not. It's funny how this guy equates Musk not letting the military control him, equals Musk controlling the military.
True, the guy could cure cancer and these clowns would still be whining about how he didn’t announce it euphemistically enough.
Meanwhile the average critic is addicted to lying and has never achieved anything.
Talk is cheap, actions are all that matter.
Ward … I sincerely like your efforts and insights as this channel is very informative. I may not understand or agree with everything Elon does or says and no one person in ANY country should have implicit power. However when we have other nefarious greedy oligarchs that seem to have no regard for anything other than their wealth or power combined with a government that can no longer be trusted Elon Musk is a godsend in at least showing some compassion and common sense for humanity.
Probably no one should have the kind of power a Musk, Gates, or Bezos has. But for the time being, I'm just glad there is one that seems inclined to push back against the Washington machine sometimes.
@@brendanh8978 … TOTALLY AGREE! 👍 👍👍
@swampfox4425 that may be so, I can't possibly know the guy. But his selfish financial interest would be much better served just doing what the Washington blob tells him to. His desire to put the damper on Ukraine escalation and his push to widen the Overton window of acceptable speech on Twitter have both measurably hurt him financially. He is now getting a lower grade form of the lawfare directed at orangeman, illustrated by the Delaware judge nullifying his compensation package with Tesla, and all the speech enforcement mechanisms of the blob (ACLU, SPLC, etc) scaring all of his advertisers off.
If he just bent the knee, allowed the feds to get their backdoor into Twitter back, he could be part of the club and make much more money. Yet he doesn't do that.
Thanks Ward. Ashley Vance's Book is a Good depiction and fllowing
Musk was right about the war. Kind of an important fact to omit.
Fine opinion piece.
The US government cannot leave US companies unprotected and exposed in international relations to try to establish foreign policy. That is a government not a business function. They have neither the authority, the mandate, the skill, the Intel, the range of interest or the power to do so. Musk is guessing.
The Congress is deficient here. This shouldn't be on Musk's plate. That it is - is ludicrous.
So should the DoD be responsible for preventing Russia from shooting down Starlink satellites?
@@psychohist Yes, especially since they own some of them.
Musk settled this months ago with DOD. This story is behind the times.
Love it. When it suits to bail his companies out, he's very much pro government, but after that, my rights are being violated. Mr. Free Speech that writes articles for the CCP's official online censor organization. You have been duped.
I really enjoy this channel and this is the first time that I se how limited our thinking can be when it comes to world peace. Sure we here are about combating the enemy but other Elon Musk and a few military advisers may think that enabling a country to go on the offensive on Russian soil would not get us closer to a victory. I recommend anyone to watching Elon speaking/explaining instead of getting info from unreliable sources.
I should add, Elon said “ SpaceX is an American company and If given an executive order by whoever is the president of the USA at the time, I would comply regardless of the consequences” On the latest Lex Fremont podcast regarding war in Ukraine Palestine and civilization conflicts in Mars.
You a very "smart". Striking enemy on his turf is what always brought victory. You logic shows how "smart" musk fans are.
The real question here is why didn't any of our US 'defense partners' have anything to offer the Ukrainians? Why was all their hardware useless in the face of Russian electronic warfare? What would have happened if US troops needed to use that hardware in a modern engagement with the same electronic warfare opposition, would it also have not worked then? Have we paid out billions of dollars in tax payer money in cost+ contracts to these 'defense partners' for useless technology? Did these 'defense partners' knowingly equip our service men and women with technology that they knew would never work on a modern battlefield, or did they do it unknowingly? I would argue the answer to whether the 'defense partner' tech is useless is readily apparent in the typically glacial-paced DOD's very quick pace in contracting with SpaceX for StarShield. As far as Elon goes I'm shocked he was able to help at all, imagine for a moment you were a rich person and you decided to invest your money in the private company SpaceX. One day the CEO announces that he is going to help one side in a war and is going to use capital from your investment to do it. In the process he is going to risk every dollar you invested by pitting the SpaceX multi-billion dollar investment in the Starlink satellite network against the cyber warfare capability of a large nation and it's allies who, if successful, might disable or de-orbit all the satellites. By the way, the CEO is going to take this risk with your money for free. How would you respond? This idea that Elon could help Ukraine with other people's money indefinitely and regardless of the risks for no renumeration is childish.
"imagine if you were a rich person, how would you feel if the CEO of a company put your money at risk"
...real relatable....🙄🙄🙄
Yes, the potential risk to shareholder value definitely outweighs the deaths caused by denying service.
Are you sure you're not in the Military Industrial Complex?
there are other levers that could have been used to convince Elon to stop his support, from personal threats to him and his family, remember how fsb love their poisons, and to his business in China, remember there is a Tesla factory there, China only pretends to not be involved in this and not supporting russia, pretty sure they supply whatever the orc army needs, or stuff they need to build what they need, also they can easily make Tesla life in China very difficult for no reason at all if Elon would continue to openly support Ukraine
those starlink dishes and cost for the bandwidth are peanuts, not for a moment I'd believe that was the real reason
So a couple things that I thought you glossed over in a weird way. First, X is the platform that is most attempting to provide a true free speech public commons, which the U.S. government is technically supposed to be used to maintain. Sadly our government is focused on widespread censorship on any topic of any public interest, and so it is up to a private person to legally battle with the federal government to maintain free speech in their private space. So when you say “his form of free speech” you might be the type of person who thinks that God didn’t give us these inalienable rights, in which case it makes sense why you are still so connected to the military industry.
Excellent Report Ward, thank you.
Supervillain but I’ll take the cars and spaces ships 😂😂
Thanks Ward
Small point. Asperger’s Syndrome is no longer considered a separate diagnosis from Autism Spectrum Disorder
Thanks for the information. I have a daughter who's on the autism spectrum who is high-functioning
Except that Musk is a psychopath
And yet many who have the above condition prefer the older nomenclature.
@@leeg4804 She should feel free to use "Asperger's" if she wants.
But people with it are still compulsively honest.
you seem like a nice guy. greetings from europe, thanks for the analysis
Thank you this is super informative.
Thank you, Mr. Carroll. Keep safe.
As a very rural resident, I, for one, appreciate Starlink; it's the only viable internet service out here that has decent service speeds/ connectivity. I pay for it every month... Ukraine... doesn't. And if Musk doesn't want to fund war or have his tech used that way, I don't see the issue.
Jeez! who put you up to this?
More biased than I'm used to seeing from Ward, I know he's a small S socialist but this is a bit rich and myopic.
Cute label, Steve. Please show your work.
@@WardCarroll 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Fun fact. At the beginning of the Ukraine war when Russia was launching their tactical rockets at civilian targets. Ukraine, who had already been gifted Starlink at a military level from Elon, re-coordinated the satalite guidance systems for the Russian rockets. Results, eight very powerful rockets once airborne did an immediate turnaround and were redirected back at the exact laughing pad coordinates of which they came. And they were not peaceful non destructive landings either.
Starlink was said to be the hub to take over the internet, cable and telephone industries, but it has been weaponzied just like anything else. There are 11k starlink satalites currently orbit and the plan is to end up with 40k of them. If you are on earth, you truly have no freedoms or privacy.
This is why governments and elites are designing and building their own little off world sanctuaries.
@@WardCarroll Denounce socialism, failure to do proves him right…
Define socialism. @@liquidsnakex
This was extremely well balanced and non-partisan. Much appreciated.
My general thought on Musk's role in Ukraine is that he gets way too much criticism as a deflection away from the failure of Western governments and leaders. If Ukraine's supposed allies hadn't spent the past two years bickering over every new package and agonizingly-slow-rolling military support, and instead had just given Ukraine what it needed from Day 1, this war might have been over long ago. Instead we gave Putin plenty of time to regroup and dig in. Western leaders utterly failed to capitalize on Ukrainian bravery and Russian incompetence, and if they ultimately lose the war, I suspect there are many Western leaders who would gladly use Musk as a scapegoat instead of owning up to their own failure.
11:09 Tech built for peace means being used for war. Nobel had the same problem.
12:30 The idea that if Ukraine does not stop Russia that the US needs to is stupid.
This whole dam war was started by the UN wanting Ukraine to join with NATO. Despite that it agreed that it would not do this.
Also, that the acquisition of Ukraine would be viewed as a provocation to Russia.
On top of that, the oppression of the Donbass region by the Ukraine government was another reason that Russia intervened.
Finally. we could have seen this conflict resolved if the UN hadn't encouraged them to keep fighting.
Great comment grounded in REALITY. While this was a very good video, it is biased and not grounded in any kind of real world common sense angle..more or less anti-Russia without addressing the true causes of this war. The USA gets a pass..
I can certainly empathize with Musk on the starlink topic. My and your pocket book are also being drained for funding to Ukraine. Though we oppose Putin’s war what is the end game? Feels like the war is good for Ukraine leaders and power brokers as well.
Musk was never "funding" anything for Ukraine. Hence the uproar when he whimsically cut service to certain areas. During that period, all connections needed to be paid for with receivers bought outright. Musk is full of shit if he says he was ever funding anything.
by "USA" you mean the Military Industrial Complex? funny how the "USA" won't let even peace discussions take place
excellent topic - very good analysis
Dude. We got boots on the ground,in Ukraine so does the U K.
Boots on the ground not just equipment. But US troops. Thought ya knew this by now.
troops advancing? do you mean russian troops?
Brilliant video. I feel like you should have mentioned the time Elon personally saved the Black Sea Fleet.
This is a major issue. When the Pentagon called Elon and he said "Yeah I'm in regular contact with Putin and the Kremlin" that should have triggered some sort of change. Can you imagine if the CEO of Raytheon said he's regularly in contact with the Chinese government?
The CEO of any defense contractor taking briefings from the Kremlin should be a critical issue that is discussed daily until it's solved. But we live in the post facts world where the majority of America is far more concerned with Taylor Swift.
We also have the single most inept procurement process in the history of mankind, tied to a slavish relationship with a three company MIC that literally dictates US foreign policy decades in the future. So no, those people get to demand nothing from a company whose products they use freely outside their ponderous dinosaur structures. What they, and you, don't like is that they don't control him the way they do Northrop execs...
The US MIC gave itself no option, but wants to cry about not making the rules anymore, meanwhile it is dying under the weight of seven decades of self inflicted wounds. Yet they use buzzwords like lean, agile, and disruptive every day.
It is a 900B tragicomedy. And you just defended it...
___
A friend of mine has Starlink in North central Nebraska he is now getting 1gbps down connections with a latency of 25ms, his uplink speeds are over 300mbps. I would put it in here but I have trees blocking a good signal path.
I don't get anywhere near that on a cable hardline. Monopolies are fun! I just got bumped up to about 210 down max but still averaging 130 right now, and 11 up, about 15 or 20 up max.
Hire a professional tree climber to get up there and trim off the top of the tree and mount the dish up there. Make a flat platform out of thick sheetmetal that bolts onto the tree.