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this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2023
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Ukraine
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I know Star Link is useful, but boy, Ukraine should really be careful using it now. Devil knows what Musk is cooking up next to undermine Ukraine. As much as it's needed, Ukraine can not depend too much on it.
Honestly Star Link should be seized by the DoD for national security reasons and for suspicion of Musk aiding a foreign enemy.
The entire US internet should be run by the USPS.
Allow me to give you a reminder that, until quite recently, USPS was run by a Trump-appointed stooge who intentionally sabotaged mail service in order to try to reduce the impact of mail-in voting.
You really need to keep in mind, when proposing the government take over an entire industry, that in America a good 50% of the time that government will be run by hapless malicious morons. I, personally, would not want Donald Trump to be in a position to unilaterally decide what the American internet looks like and to arbitrarily ban whatever he thinks is harmful to his interests.
Even while Trump's idiot was in charge, tampering with the mail was a federal offense.
And I don't imagine it being totally public. USPS would own the network, and companies would pay them to sell access. This would allow dozens of ISPs, all offering different levels of service, without needing local monopolies. It would look a lot like dial up ISPs: You could use AOL, EarthLink, NetZero, or any of a handful of small, local ISPs.
The USPS would then contract with companies to maintain the networks, but since they own it they can regulate the ISPs a lot more closely on a host of issues. Plus it would give free access to all online government services.
I could get behind something like that, though I do wonder how big a difference that would really necessarily make. Cell phone network providers have to lease spectrum ranges from the government, but it's not as if that market is actually robust. Beyond that, Congress is perfectly able to pass regulation on ISPs, but doesn't for a variety of stupid political reasons. I'm not sure how those couldn't equally apply to USPS oversight (perhaps even more cheaply, since you'd have fewer people to ~~bribe~~ I mean, lobby).
I don't really have an issue with in in principle, but I'm not convinced it would inherently make things much better either.
DeJoy was appointed by the USPS board of governors, not Trump. He's still in charge. You'll notice that mail in voting worked and Trump lost, and also that even with a hideous bucket of fuck like DeJoy doing his best to cripple it in order to drive business to UPS and FedEx the USPS still delivers more places, faster and cheaper than all it's competitors. USPS is strong. It should function as a mail service, an official part of the electoral system and it's function as a bank should be restored. I wouldn't be mad if it ended up running a significant backbone of the US internet as well.
Are they even able to use it? My understanding was that it was never turned on because Comrade Musk didn't want to piss off his Russian financiers by letting them use the service he made the USGov pay for.
Yeah, they are able to use it, just not at the front. It is useful though.
The issue is that you can't trust it.
VPN plus 4g backup I guess.
If I was in a situation where starlink was only option for connectivity, sure, but at the front lines cell service isn't really reliable as whole towers are missing and/or damaged and even if the cell tower was there it's not a quarantee that it's connected to anything or has power. Starlink doesn't require a (literal) ton of infrastructure on the ground around you and that's why it's been really useful, and often the only option, Ukraine has.
Starlink as a technology is really cool and when it came to the market I hoped I would get to play with it some day, but now as the company is ran by that twat who shovels DoD money into his own pockets and is on his knees for russians the interest and 'geek factor' isn't really there anymore.
If you are interested in a rather detailed analysis of Starlink in Ukraine, I highly recommend listening to episode 53 of the 'Geopolitics Decanted' podcast.