Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American, July 31, 2023

"A study by New York Times reporters on Friday noted that Elon Musk has steadily come to dominate satellite internet technology with the Starlink technology made by his SpaceX rocket company, and that he has used that dominance to restrict the activities of Ukraine’s military. Musk began to launch satellites into space in 2019, and currently has in position more than 4,500 of the 42,000 satellites he plans. He controls more than 50% of the globe’s working satellites.  The federal government contracts with SpaceX for its rockets and the technology that reaches into areas other companies don’t yet reach. Ukraine, for example, depends on the 42,000 Starlink terminals across the country. Late last year, Musk restricted the use of Starlink on the battlefields, leaving Ukrainian troops without the ability to communicate in a way that suggests he was conducting his own foreign and military policy that conflicted with that of the United States. But a number of countries worry that no one man should have such power, and U.S. officials noted his proposals for a peace plan that would have given Russia Ukrainian land. The Repuglicans have always been bad but never this fascist police state crackdown bad, this lowdown craven in their poor, self-destructive, nihilistic judgment bad. And now a captain of industry swaggering around with his monopoly capital bullshit; another common feature of fascist movements, by the way. And of course Evil Tony Starks supports you know who.  "Semafor’s Washington bureau chief Benji Sarlin noted that while “[e]veryone has thoroughly absorbed it already, it is 100% insane to have a president [Trump in '24]opposed by basically his whole cabinet—some of whom actively are or considered running against him themselves.” Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American, July 31, 2023