

Can you imagine living in a communist country like China, where the State-sponsored media will quite seriously suggest that the nation’s dictatorship should punish a private citizen and his company for not being sufficiently eager and willing to assist the dictatorship with their military agenda? How terrifying, right? I’m SO glad we don’t live somewhere like that.
Oh, but wait. We kind of do now, actually. With a completely straight face and all the seriousness in the world, one of CNN’s lead State propagandists, Jake Tapper, makes exactly that ridiculous suggestion to our completely incompetent and disastrous Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken. Oh, and he blatantly lied about the details of the situation, too. But who’s surprised by that.
Tapper says that Musk “confirmed” that he “blocked access to his StarLink satellite network in Crimea in order to disrupt a major Ukrainian attack on the Russian Navy there.” Tapper is trying to lead you to assume that the area in question was covered by the StarLink satellite network, and just when Ukraine needed it for this attack on the Russian Navy, Elon stepped in and “blocked” that access in an intentional effort to “disrupt” that attack. Tapper claims that means Elon “effectively sabotaged” Ukraine’s military efforts to defend themselves.
Well, no. That’s not what he did. It makes for a much less sensational propaganda segment to explain that he didn’t “confirm” that he “blocked access” to his satellite network to “disrupt” any attack, but rather chose, as is his right as a private citizen and the head of the company, not to extend access to his satellite network to an area which was not already being covered, a private citizen (Elon) did not choose to voluntarily extend his company’s network access to an area that wasn’t being covered simply because one nation wanted to use it to launch a military attack against another nation.
Tapper went on to suggest (through a question, which is a tricky way for him to cover his own behind) that perhaps Elon should face “repercussions” for this choice, which was not in line with The Party’s military agenda in Ukraine. How DARE this private citizen not go out of his way to use his company to aid and support The Party’s agenda?!
Watch this ridiculousness and then ask yourself how anyone can possibly take these people seriously anymore.
CNN's @jaketapper to Blinken: "Should there be repercussions for … capricious billionaire" @ElonMusk not offering assistance to a Ukraine military operation? pic.twitter.com/0PPczxj3HX
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) September 10, 2023
1 Comment
Except Musk explicitly stated that the refusal of the emergency activation request (for Starlink service over the Black Sea) was to prevent “an escalation” of the conflict. It’s not as cut-and-dry as ‘private company didn’t offer service over particular area’. The capability was there. Musk chose not to allow it, not for technical reasons, but political ones.
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1699917639043404146