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.
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?
I’d say it’s a good thing we have antitrust laws, but we all know how much laws mean to the group of mobsters currently in control.
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.
Today thousands of planes lost critical communications while in the US airspace after a SpaceX test flight exploded in low earth orbit. The explosion destroyed a significant portion of the Starlink satellite constellation, and international space tracking organizations are monitoring the situation closely. They are reporting a Kessler Syndrome cascade has not been ruled out.
Man for a bunch of rich assholes the GoP sure likes to shoot themselves in the foot.
Oh right here we go
I’m sure that will end well.
Aha! Trump uncovers corruption within DOGE itself!
You misspelled creates
Whoosh…
Also, the org was corrupt on the face of it from the start, so there’s not much more to be added now.
Oh, THERE it is. This is why Elump has allowed so many air traffic control issues recently. To set the stage for this bullshit.
Sorry, I’m kinda slow sometimes.
“Allowed”? In what sense? Are you seriously suggesting Trump or Musk are responsible for a Delta crash in Canada, and helicopter collision and a Southwest go around?
In the sense that the issue isn’t being addressed as quickly or as seriously as it should be. Cancelling a contract and awarding it to a company with zero experience is not the answer.
Hmm, convenient.
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…
If the US does not accurately report flights, then the only solution is to cut it off from all international air travel. Any planes that would leave the US air space should be immediately forced to land or turn around by military aircraft in whichever airspace they enter.
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’m about to start demanding hazard pay from work when they need me to travel.
Musk is a walking ethics violation.
Aaaannddd there it is… Certainly no conflicts of interest /s
The attempt to sell Teslas to the military was definitely a conflict of interests as well.
The concept of a conflict of interest only matters if American voters care , and they don’t.
