In response to reports in The Wall Street Journal that Elon Musk personally ordered the deadly slowdown of internet access to Ukraine and that Trump then called and begged him to get it restored, Nobel Prize winning economist and all-around genius Paul Krugman called yesterday for the United States to nationalize Musk’s Starlink/Starshield array of thousands of satellites providing internet service around the world.
On MS NOW, former Bush speechwriter and columnist (and guest on my show) David Frum echoed the sentiment in an interview with former Bush White House Communications Director Nicole Wallace. And Matt Stoller — often brilliantly on the monopoly beat — is also writing thoughtfully about what to do about this terrible situation.
Senator Adam Schiff framed the issue when he wrote on Musk’s Nazi-infested social media site:
“Either the President was lying or Musk was lying, but the decision to slow down satellite speed and access has life or death consequences for Ukraine. This deserves a full investigation by the Senate. Elon Musk should be compelled to testify before Congress and under oath. National security decisions should be made in our national security interests, and not based on the personal whim of an unstable executive.”
Politico then followed up with an article titled “Dem gavels are coming for Elon Musk” citing both Republican and Democratic members of Congress calling for Musk to be called before Congress under oath. That simple call for a normal political process provoked an imperious and apparently furious Musk to reply with an implied threat:
“Live by the sword, die by the sword. Those who pick fights with me should understand that I will find out who is really pulling the strings and come for them, not just their puppets …”
If ever there was a business that merited nationalization, Starlink is it. It only exists because it’s been heavily subsidized by US government contracts and facilities, uses the internet that the US government invented, and — those in favor of nationalization argue — shouldn’t be subject to the whims of an eccentric, ketamine-addled, Nazi-saluting, election-buying CEO whose apparent decision just cost Ukrainian lives.
There’s even an argument to be made for nationalizing the rocket ship part of SpaceX (which owns Starlink/Starshield) and, like during the years when we first put men on the moon, handing it over to be owned and run by NASA.
But is it even possible? Turns out that American history says an emphatic, “Yes!”