Russian lawmakers authorize Putin to use military force outside the country, Part II

[Labster]

The Register: Bombshell biography claim: Fearing nuclear war, Musk switched off Starlink to stymie Ukraine attack on Russia

No tl;dr - read the article for the complete train wreck picture.

It's not a trainwreck, it's a trolley problem.

The weird thing is that every community I follow has decided to attack Elon Musk all at once for different reasons.  /r/ukraine wants him charged with treason, Ukrainian government officers are saying he committed evil, the tech folks are upset about him apparently going full antisemite, the California government is upset he's suing to stop their anti-hate speech law, the FAA is still upset about that little oopsie where the Starship test exploded its launchpad, and /r/noncredibledefense is mad that the reason he shut down the network was to prevent 'the funni'.

One thing to note is that the Musk's biographer got access to communications with Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister about the war.  It's from last year so not that important, but still the kind of sensitive things that aren't usually leaked to the press during the conflict.

The situation at X continues to deteriorate (going down the Xhitter), which left "Pedo Guy" Guy seeking scapegoats.  So why not Jews, right?  He said that the Anti-Defamation League is mostly responsible for the loss in advertising at Twitter.  He said that he made a deal with them to stop their attacks, and that in exchange he would get around to restoring Twitter's trust and safety committee.  And then they complained about him publicly again the next week, like backstabbers.  Yes, that's the logic of why advertisers are leaving, while they brag that 99% of ad impressions are with brand-safe content -- two nines!  I mean come on, Elon has a trust and safety committee of Me, Myself, and I up and running!

Speculation is wondering if this is classic narcissist behavior -- finding literally anyone else to blame for your own mistakes.  Or maybe it's all of the ketamine he admits to taking to 'open' his mind?  I mean, complaining that he didn't want to be in a war -- like, maybe don't go into the businesses of rockets, communications, and vehicles then?  That's the problem with wars, you get dragged in whether you want to be or not.

Oh, and I didn't mention, but his plan to make X a payment app is continuing, though they're being sued to stop it because of complicity with their major shareholder, the Saudi government.   Meanwhile in an effort to appear trustworthy for banking, X continues to not pay its bills.  Because they didn't want class action suits because those are expensive, X is now facing 2200 individual lawsuits from not paying severance fees.  I know this is all a little off-topic for this thread but there are serious national security concerns here -- they'd be much worse if Gwynne Shotwell were not the person actually running SpaceX -- but still bad enough that Taiwan is pulling out of a deal with Starlink because Elon wants 100% control, and will building their own satellite internet.  This is all one week of news coverage, can you imagine?

Moving back to Ukraine...

-- USA to send ATACMS at long last, just in time for a late summer Crimea Beach Party
---- "A surprising discovery could also ease the administration's choice to send the weapons: The U.S. has found it has more ATACMS in its inventory than originally assessed, the two officials told ABC News."
-- Ukraine to legalize pornography, as lawmakers note that there's nothing that leads to more corruption than a rarely-enforced law.  OnlyFans has become pretty important as a source of wartime income for women.
-- US sends $5.4 million seized from one Russian oligarch to Ukraine.  Maybe if other oligarchs don't want their shit taken, they can overthrow their leader?
-- Russia starts putting cope tires on top of their planes.  But can you count to four?  And maybe they think it will screw up the infrared signatures enemy missiles are looking for?  Either these are decoys, or Russians are praying that Western tech is as dumb as they are.
-- North Korea to start shipping more arms to Russia.  NonCredibleDefense: "If you think about it, Ukraine is already a proxy war between North and South Korea."
-- Russians destroy a Challenger 2 tank, the first one destroyed in any combat.  Everyone survived, of course.
-- US Congress writes a bill to create a Black Sea Fleet... if we can... maybe.  The US isn't a signatory of the Montreaux Convention so, uh... a guy can dream, alright!  Sheesh.
-- Ukraine has broken through the second defensive line in the South.  The rear lines seem to be worse than the front ones, which is the opposite of the way things worked in WWI.
-- Breakthrough of the third and final defensive line is on a clock; it needs to be done in the next month before mud season sets in.
-- Burning Man hosts pre-enactment of mobiks in mud season.
-- US is also sending depleted uranium ammunition for the Abrams it already sent.  Russian government moans about the devastation it will cause before launching more cluster bombs at civilians.
-- Of the 18 people who led the "independence" of the Donetsk and Luhansk Republics (now annexed to Russia after a "vote"), 17 of them are dead, and the last, Igor Girkin, is on trial for criticizing the Russian Army.
-- Cuba says it dismantled a human trafficking ring recruiting for Russia's war in Ukraine.  Apparently they were treated like slave labor in digging trenches.  Russky Mir in action.
-- Ukrainian Intelligence:  Maybe Prighozhin is alive?  Maybe he isn't?
-- Romanian borderland gets attacked by Russian drones that got lost.  Everyone mostly ignores it, since nothing of value was lost.  Since grain trade has shifted to the Danube, Russian attacks have to get farther away and closer to NATO.