My new Ukraine "Conspiracy Theory" concerns Elon Musk

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Some say Elon Musk is the new Henry Ford.

When it comes to conspiracy theories related to Putin's invasion of Ukraine, why should the Nord Stream crowd have all the fun? So, I'd like to propose a brand new one, and it implicates the richest man on Earth.

Elon Musk thinks he's so rich, he can buy Twitter for a snack—until he realized that he had swindled himself. He bid the share price at $54.20, haha. What was he smoking? Since then, lawyers have been paying to send their kids to law school with what he's been paying them to try to weasel out of the deal.

He also must think that being the richest man on Earth, he must be the smartest man on Earth, because in addition to running Tesla and SpaceX, and looking for bots on Twitter, he obviously has time to become knowledgeable enough to mouthoff about Ukraine—on Twitter, naturally.

On Monday, he put forward his own proposal for a "Ukraine-Russia Peace" deal, in a poll, on Twitter, naturally.

These were the terms:

- Redo elections of annexed regions under UN supervision. Russia leaves if that is will of the people.

So, redo the elections under conditions of Russian occupation, but with UN supervision. Good, I'm sure that will eliminate the intimidation factor. The people still left in the occupied regions (those that haven't fled) can feel secure in the knowledge that the Russian troops probably won't take revenge until the UN supervisors have left. And who will they be supervising? The same pro-Russian forces that conducted the last election? And exactly who will make the Russian leave, if they decide to renege, and Musk-up the deal?

- Crimea formally part of Russia, as it has been since 1783 (until Khrushchev’s mistake).

Khrushchev’s mistake! I'm glad Elon settled that one for us. Putin thinks that accepting that Ukraine was its own nation, with its own Soviet Socialist Republic, within the Union, with a Right of Self-Determination was Lenin's mistake—corrected by Stalin. I would like to know if Elon agrees with that.

- Water supply to Crimea assured.

Of, course nothing about Ukraine's borders being secured, Ukraine's Black Sea access being assured, Ukraine's people being protected from a Russian leader bent on their complete destruction as an independent nation. I just learned, a few hours ago from Timothy Snyder, that Putin is even having the word "Ukraine" removed from Russian history books!

- Ukraine remains neutral.

Neutral with regards to a country that has just invaded and raped it. Neutral with regards to a country bent on its destruction. Very good. Notice that the only thing Putin has to do to hold up his end of Musk's "Piece Deal" is allow some UN Supervisors in for an afternoon.

He has over 100 million followers on Twitter, but only 2,748,378 people voted in Musk's very pro-Putin poll, and almost 60% gave it the thumbs👎down!

Elon Musk fumed. He blamed it on the bots.

On Wednesday, after months of fighting it, Elon Musk says he is ready to buy Twitter again, at original $44 billion price. What made him change his mind? Did he suddenly feel the need to have more control over the platform?

And today, on Friday, we have this most troubling BREAKING NEWS from Yahoo News and others:

Frontline Ukraine troops are reportedly enduring Starlink outages

Kris Holt·Contributing Reporter

Fri, 7 October 2022 at 10:39 am

Ukrainian forces have reportedly been dealing with Starlink outages as they try to take back Russian-occupied areas. Some of the outages, which are said to have caused a severe loss of communication over the last several weeks, occurred as troops broke through the frontline into territory controlled by Russia as well as during battles, a Ukraine government official told The Financial Times.

The cause of the apparent outages are not yet known. Engadget has contacted Starlink owner SpaceX for comment.

Starlink outages were reported in the four regions that Russia annexed last month following referendums, the legitimacy of which have been disputed. As the Financial Times notes, there's a significant Ukrainian counteroffensive in those areas.

As the article says, Starlink is run by SpaceX, which is owned by Elon Musk. Musk got a pro-Ukrainian reputation, and a lot of good press, by floating the idea that Starlink was his $80 million gift to Ukraine, but this week it also came out that the whole thing was bankrolled by the US government. Elon Musk didn't become the richest man on Earth by giving stuff away. This might be another reason to be ticked-off about the whole Ukraine thing right now.

He may not be losing money on it, but his company still runs it, and now we know he's not quite as pro-Ukrainian as we may have been led to believe. There's an old cop saying: Never believe in coincidences. So, the question has to be asked: Is there a connection between Elon Musk's pro-Putin views and Starlink's outages in the combat zone?

Unlike the attacks on the already shutdown Nord Streams 1 & 2, these communication outages in the areas where Ukraine is rapidly liberating its territory, are probably costing lives right now.

Anyway, that's my conspiracy theory, and I think it bears more investigation, because it may turnout to be more than just a theory.

More, later....

Clay Claiborne

7 October 2022