Summary
The FAA is reportedly set to cancel a $2.4 billion contract with Verizon to modernize air traffic control communications and instead award it to Elon Musk’s Starlink.
Musk has publicly criticized Verizon’s system as failing, though without evidence. SpaceX employees have been embedded within the FAA, and some now have agency email addresses.
The move raises concerns about favoritism and conflicts of interest, especially as Musk’s companies have received $38 billion in government funding.
The contract transfer has not followed standard procedures, prompting resistance from senior FAA officials.
Musk doesn’t care anymore if he tanks Tesla, as long as he’s getting government handouts.
Tesla’s shareholders might though.
Good. Then the shareholders can sue and make things more difficult for everyone involved.
Then don’t be a Tesla shareholder, fucking duh. Sell that shit, fuck this guy.
I’d have to buy shares before I could sell them.
So no need to worry then
What if my shares lose value then?
Aaaannddd there it is… Certainly no conflicts of interest /s
Some might think this is corruption, but I assure you, this was the best offer we could find, because all the others got lost somehow?
Sounds like a real lack of efficiency
Nonono, Musk has already helped us with that. We are saving hundreds of dollars on wages, and only very few planes have crashed.
It’s super efficient to lose the papers of all but one applicant. Really speeds up those decision times.
Im in my 30s and often wonder, has the world always been this infuriating? Were we going apeshit watching representatives openly steal our future in 2005? 1995?
Were dudes in 1955 Paris tearing their hair our how the president’s third cousin is getting a contract to rebuild the entire railway system on the merit of fuck all?
I’m old enough to say it was exactly like this back in 2005. That was a couple years after the Bush administration told blatant lies to start the Iraq War, ignoring the largest protests in the world up to the time. There was open corruption as they gave out massive no-bid contracts to Republican cronies like KBR. There was rank incompetence like the FEMA response to hurricane Katrina, led by a guy whose sole qualifications were running a horse breeding association (and raising a bunch of money for Republicans).
Bush threw no bid contracts for new work at Halliburton, and it was a sketchy scandal that congress wasn’t willing to prosecute, because republicans. Musk is outright stealing a contract from another vendor, while slandering them in the media.
I hope Verizon sues Musk, Starlink, and the DOGE into oblivion. Even if they don’t have a chance of winning, they should be able to make it more difficult to do anything. Airlines should sue too due to the preventable crashes that occurred recently. In fact, I hope every company affected by DOGE’s policies sues.
They might not be able to get a fair trial, but they could potentially bog the system down in red tape.
Give ‘em Hell!
Hoisted by their own petard, it seems. I’m with you. I hope they fight, but they also helped create this situation (like many corporations).
https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/verizon-communications/summary?id=D000000079
I don’t doubt it at all, but as the passage goes, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”. Or as I like to say: baby steps.
Nah, the enemy of my enemy is the enemy of my enemy, nothing more, nothing less.
But as a great man once said, “Let them fight.”
Yeah, triangular politics. I’m on board. I regret that getting into this discussion any further will require reading from the works of Kissinger. Maybe this time we can fix the problem without bombing a fourth party like Cambodia. Who knows. All bets are of at this point.
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Sadly you’re probably spot on. 😞
Yep. Never flying again.
This is handing the button that controls your life over to elon… He had them strategically turn off Ukraine’s internet at a critical moment to benefit putin… What do you think he’s going to do when Jasmine Crockett’s plane in on final approach to land back in her district after having the “fuck off, elon” press conference?
Musk is a walking ethics violation.
We call this a conflict of interest. Fuck Musk. Guess whose planes will never show up in flight logs so he, Trump, and all of Putin’s other stooges can fly around and make deals with no bother.
I bet this is definitely a contributing factor to his actions. Hard to fly a drone into his engine if you don’t know which plane is his…
Um, I’d like to choose whatever the fuck might be behind door number 3. Even if it’s murder hornets. As long as they are the data transmission sort of murder hornets.
I have no love for Verizon but using starlink is the definition of a conflict of interest. I mean so has everything else he’s been doing but this one is especially egregious.
An overhaul from the man who sells “full self driving”. What could possibly go wrong? 🙄
I would sure love to see the proof that “FAA assessment is single digit months to catastrophic failure, putting air traveler safety at serious risk.” from a wholly independent authority.
A note written on a paper napkin won’t do.
“This is your captain speaking. I’m afraid we’re going to be a little bit delayed here because we’ve lost connection to the Starlink satellites that provide our communication. We’ll be pushing back from the gate just as soon as the weather clears a bit.”
“We’ll be cleared to land just as soon as our check clears.”
Hats off to the people that still care enough to document this corruption. Hopefully someday (while Musk is still alive) the general public will care enough as well, so that there will be consequences.
