The Russian-Ukrainian War Thread

Black Jack Shellac

Active Member
Musk's Starlink is a private company and as such the H & Congress have little say on how he uses it PROVIDED that it doesn't break US FCC regulations and US domestic law. If they get real antsy, Musk could take the whole operation offshore. IIRC he is South African and I don't think that the WH and Congress would like to see Space X moving to South Africa, do you.
SpaceX makes much of its revenue from NASA contracts, that could dry up if he tries a stunt like this again. Tesla also make money from the US govt. His milking cow may get angry if he pushes it too far. I think the US govt is more likely to discuss these things with Musk rather than threaten to take over his companies.
 
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2007yellow430

Active Member
Musk's Starlink is a private company and as such the H & Congress have little say on how he uses it PROVIDED that it doesn't break US FCC regulations and US domestic law. If they get real antsy, Musk could take the whole operation offshore. IIRC he is South African and I don't think that the WH and Congress would like to see Space X moving to South Africa, do you.
he can move wherever he wishes. If he does not toe the line, we will take the control away from him. He could also lose the auto manufacturing. Read the constitution it controls.

Art
 

tonnyc

Well-Known Member
IIRC he is South African and I don't think that the WH and Congress would like to see Space X moving to South Africa, do you.
I don't think that works the way you think. South Africa does not have the necessary environment to support a space launch industry. The engineers will balk at having to relocate and most will resign and find new jobs at competing businesses. A lot of the technology will be restricted from export and South Africa will not have access to the same level of technology.

The most likely result of Elon Musk threatening to move SpaceX to South Africa is WH and Congress laughing at him.
The most likely result of Elon Musk actually moving SpaceX to South Africa is SpaceX goes bankrupt within five years and Jeff Bezos throwing parties left and right as Blue Origin takes over SpaceX's contracts.


Anyway, back to topic....
Russia seems to be aware that other countries are ignoring their implied threat and are sending ships to Ukrainian ports. After all, if Russia sinks another country's ship carrying another country's grain, they will piss off two countries, and they're already short on friends. But they seem to have concentrated on the strategically better move of destroying Ukrainian port facilities, therefore making it very difficult for Ukraine to move the grain in the first place.
 

KipPotapych

Well-Known Member
I hope people from the WH have explained to Musk that he should leave such decisions to the WH/Pentagon in the future. I think they should tell him that if he does anything like that again, they will nationalize his network and keep control out of Musk's hands until the war is over. He should not be the person to make such decisions.
Sounds like a true authoritarian regime though, doesn’t it? “Until the war is over” part aside, perhaps.

What was done by Musk was done last year. Maybe someone has better information on the subject, but I do not believe there were any contractual obligations, neither there should have been any expectations on what this “donated” service would provide. Did he sign up SpaceX or himself to support any war effort at all? As per Musk:

“There was an emergency request from government authorities to activate Starlink all the way to Sevastopol,” Musk posted on X, the platform formally known as Twitter that he owns. Sevastopol is a port city in Crimea. “The obvious intent being to sink most of the Russian fleet at anchor. If I had agreed to their request, then SpaceX would be explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation.”

From: New Elon Musk biography offers fresh details about the billionaire's Ukraine dilemma | CNN Politics

From a private enterprise perspective, isn’t this a completely reasonable position? Again, I do not believe there were any, at least not publicly declared, obligations to the provision of the service. In fact, I believe Musk himself, as well the company’s reps, stated on numerous occasions that Starlink is not to be used for the purposes of offensive. For example, this is one of the more recent articles that indicates that they actually prohibit UA forces to use the service for drone control:


Furthermore,

SpaceX has provided Starlink services in Ukraine at its own expense and through an agreement with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), not under a Defense Department contract.

As per Limits on Ukraine's use of Starlink for war operations is a lesson for U.S. military. The link to the USAID in the quoted part was intentionally left, where it is stated that:

The terminals will allow public officials and critical citizen service providers to continue to communicate within Ukraine and with the outside world, even if Putin’s brutal aggression severs Ukraine’s fiber optic or cellular communication infrastructure connections.

Nowhere does it indicate that the service is to be used for the war effort at all, but actually humanitarian reasons.

Frankly, I do not see any issues whatsoever. Nationalization? Seriously? On what basis? Frankly, it is quite laughable. However, the solution has been found by reasonable people:

Since reports surfaced of SpaceX shutting off satellite communication in Ukraine last year, the Pentagon has granted SpaceX a contract. The details of the contract are unknown — on Thursday Pentagon spokesman Jeff Jurgenson declined to say more “due to the critical nature of these systems.” But Weeden said placing Starlink under contract should allow the Pentagon more control and possibly prevent the service from being suddenly shut off again.

So basically pay the bills and make the company a defense contractor. And some more common sense without the hyperbole, nationalization, and other pretty crazy ideas/threats ing from the Pentagon or White House:

“That is the balance that the Defense Department has to grapple with as it focuses on this commercial technology: Is it losing control in some way?” Weeden said. But the government is not helpless and has ways to rein companies in: “You can address a lot of those concerns through contracting mechanism or other legal agreements,” he said.

From: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/09/07/ukraine-starlink-musk-biography/

As to why “donated” in the second paragraph of this post is in brackets (of course, aside from the obvious point that it is actually fully donated to Ukraine by various parties). Musk, or to be more accurate SpaceX, wasn’t footing the bill alone. Estimates of what the company paid out of its pocket vary, but this one most reliable source indicates the following:

Based on the figures shared directly by the company, around 85 percent of the terminals and 30 percent of the internet connectivity provided thus far were paid for by the United States (such as USAID), Poland, and other groups.

And

They asked that the U.S. Department of Defense take over funding for Ukraine’s government and military use of Starlink, which SpaceX said would cost upwards of $120 million USD just for the remainder of 2022. It would cost almost $400 million to continue operating for another twelve months.

That’d be September when they asked. So, even avoiding the assumption that the initial costs would likely be reasonably (possibly substantially) higher than the running costs of $400M in the following year (ie 2023), as well as some of the other variables, SpaceX had paid at the very least $50M for this donated service. Just to show that they aren’t “altruistic” as they may want to appear.

Oh, and the source for the latter:


To conclude this part, here is another little excerpt from the article cited above:

SpaceX, however, wanted the U.S. government to pay a greater share.

So, what appears to have happened at the end of the day, company’s books look a lot better (altruism aside), all the risks/liabilities were transferred to the US government via becoming a defense contractor, and, of course, all the attention is on dear Elon once again. Isn’t it what the most competent businessman would do? And, frankly, I don’t even like the guy, greatly.

All of the above, quotes aside, is based on an unqualified opinion, of course, which is mine.


he can move wherever he wishes. If he does not toe the line, we will take the control away from him. He could also lose the auto manufacturing. Read the constitution it controls.

Art
Care to elaborate on taking the control away and losing the auto-manufacturing? I am genuinely interested.


Edit: Forgot to add that ATACMS might be heading to Ukraine:

 

tonnyc

Well-Known Member
Sounds like a true authoritarian regime though, doesn’t it? “Until the war is over” part aside, perhaps.
Oh, please. Selective quoting can be used to make anyone sound unreasonable. You lower yourself by using such tactic.

Seriously, eminent domain is a tool of any government, and use of eminent domain does not mean the government is authoritarian. Merely that the government has chosen to exercise its power.

What was done by Musk was done last year. Maybe someone has better information on the subject, but I do not believe there were any contractual obligations, neither there should have been any expectations on what this “donated” service would provide. Did he sign up SpaceX or himself to support any war effort at all? As per Musk:

“There was an emergency request from government authorities to activate Starlink all the way to Sevastopol,” Musk posted on X, the platform formally known as Twitter that he owns. Sevastopol is a port city in Crimea. “The obvious intent being to sink most of the Russian fleet at anchor. If I had agreed to their request, then SpaceX would be explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation.”

From: New Elon Musk biography offers fresh details about the billionaire's Ukraine dilemma | CNN Politics

From a private enterprise perspective, isn’t this a completely reasonable position? Again, I do not believe there were any, at least not publicly declared, obligations to the provision of the service. In fact, I believe Musk himself, as well the company’s reps, stated on numerous occasions that Starlink is not to be used for the purposes of offensive. For example, this is one of the more recent articles that indicates that they actually prohibit UA forces to use the service for drone control:

What happened last year happened last year, and the fact that SpaceX is still in private hands shows that the US government does not exercise their eminent domain power carelessly. However, the US Department of Defense now has a contract with Starlink to provide service to Ukraine and I am saying that if Elon Musk caused SpaceX to break that contract, well, the US then has good reason to compel SpaceX to fulfill their contract. This is basic contract law.

Again, if Elon Musk's interference happened last year, that was then. But now the situation is different. There is a contract, and SpaceX has been paid for that contract. If he interferes again, SpaceX will be held liable to a willful breach of contract.
 

Capt. Ironpants

Active Member

Zelensky says that UKR needs 160 F-16 so that RU cannot win air supremacy. He doesn't mention logistics, nor mechanics, nor pilots, nor AAD; only that "it will be difficult to have them in operation at the beginning of the next year". I don't think that (give me, give me, give me) is a winning strategy.
I am thinking of Croatia's war against Serbia, the offensive years later. How many years and investment would UKR need for that? Would UKR win that new war? Is "carry on and hope" the only option?
If you are talking about Op Storm (Oluja, August 1995), the Croats were not at war with Serbia, but rather the ethnic Serb enclaves within the internationally-recognized borders of Croatia. Specifically, the RSK (self-declared Republic of Serbian Krajina) known as the "Krajina Serbs" inside UN Sectors North and South (Sector West was cleansed in May during Op Flash).

It wasn't even a real war, as there very little actual fighting. It was a massive ethnic cleansing, with over 200,000 people cleansed within the space of four days from an area the size of England, followed by months of a nonstop looting and burning frenzy (with ethnic Serb grannies murdered here and there). The ethnic Croat minority living inside the sectors had previously been almost entirely expelled by ethnic Serbs a few years prior (and it certainly wasn't pretty, either, but in that case my country wasn't assisting the ugliness, as was the case in 1995), replaced by minority ethnic Serbs fleeing Croatia proper.

While the RSK leadership were puppets of Milosevic, goons and craven weasels all, not to mention war criminals, the RSK had already been sold out by Milosevic at the beginning (Tudjman and Milosevic's 1991 deal to carve up Bosnia-Hercegovina), and on the eve of Op Storm, the RSK leaders and and top commanders disappeared over the border with their trunks stuffed with DM -- nearly all heavy weapons had been removed about two weeks prior by Serbian military claiming they would replace them with better stuff ). It's all in the ICTY transcripts if you want to look it up.

It's true the Croats had been trained by Americans (MPRI camp at Jastrebarsko being the best known pubilicly), but their success was not solely due to that. The ARSK was a paltry demoralized ragtag bunch, with pathetic weapons and practically no armor (and precious little fuel and mostly without even proper boots to wear) and numbering probably less than 20,000. The Croatian forces numbered around 200,000. Sanctions were enforced against the Serbs, but not the Croats, so the Croats had some nice shiny stuff but didn't really need it. Op Storm is in no way comparable to Ukrainians vs. Russians, no way no how.

I suppose you could say the RSK was sort of analogous to the LDNR in that it was an rebel ethnic enclave, but it was a disjointed patchwork, with only Sector East sharing a border with Serbia (and that, across the Danube). Unlike Putin, Milosevic did not intervene and invade Croatia in 1995 -- he had already decided to sell out the Krajina Serbs and had a deal with Tudjman -- the RSK enclaves were merely bargaining chips to Slobo. (Besides, Serbian troops would have had to traverse BiH to do so.)

The US playbook was similar: a "peace plan" (Minsk for Ukraine, a succession of plans for Croatia) to mostly freeze the conflict while the US arms and trains its favored side. From 2014 through 2022, we spent billions training and arming the Ukrainians (we got off much, much cheaper, and in far, far less time, too, with the Croats).

Anyway, the Croats didn't need to worry about air superiority. The RSK had nothing to put in the air and NATO took out the ARSK's one SAM battery near Knin early on. The Croats had a few MiGs, which they mainly used to strafe refugees as they fled -- they weren't militarily significant. (They claimed they were targeting the few fleeing military vehicles mixed in with the refugees, but the bodies found by UN there were all civilians -- besides, the few military vehicles were fleeing, not fighting, and the most notable one was a military ambulance clearly marked with huge red crosses.) They also overran 60+ UN OPs (and literally ran over some) and even used some Danish blue helmets as human shields, chained to the front of their tanks (and killed three UN blue helmets). The Bosnian Muslims out of Bihac were also part of the operation, and their V Corps left quite the mess behind and committed numerous war crimes. The Croats probably wished they'd stayed in Bihac, as they got stuck with cleaning up their big messes.*

This last just to illustrate that American training and US/NATO assistance does not necessarily translate into the sort of conduct we expect from our own militaries, didn't intend to go off topic.

If this ends up going badly for the Ukrainians ... Well, I can't help remembering Izetbegovic's face at Dayton. But I'll have to back up in time a bit to explain. In the lead up to the wars in Bosnia-Hercegovina, all three sides (Bosnian Muslim, Croat and Serb) signed the Lisbon Agreement (also known as the Carrington–Cutileiro peace plan), but immediately afterwards, after conferring with the American ambassador, Izetbegovic withdrew his signature. And we all know what happened next. A number of other peace plans were later floated, after war broke out, but each time Washington insisted the Bosnian Muslims did not get enough territory, setting off bloody scrambles to capture more map each time. After all those years of carnage, well, the Bosnian Muslims ended up with slightly less map than they would have have got under Lisbon.* I will never forget the pain in his eyes at Dayton. All for what? Well, I think I know quite well. But it was not in the interest of his people. Or any of the peoples of BiH. If Ukraine ends up with less than they would have got in the peace negotiations before US/UK intervened, Zelensky may end up with that same look in his eyes.

*Just a glimpse of what it looked like on the Bosnian Muslim V Corps side of the road (the road itself clogged with ethnic Serb refugees -- Croat forces on the east side, ABiH V Corps on the west) on the final day of Oluja (WARNING: brief footage of civilians being executed -- there used to be a worse one on You Tube with head chopping):

[Decided to not include the short video after all. If anyone wants video proof of what went on there, PM me for the link.]

Lots of burning and wanton destruction by V Corps, too. Not far from there, they locked a bunch of horses in a barn and burned them alive. The Croats burned and blew up a lot of houses, and looted the rest into ruins (including toilets, roof tiles, everything). Meticulous UNMO assessment showed 75% of homes were destroyed or rendered uninhabitable. And they slaughtered farm animals and pets, with some pets subjected to horrific torture. V Corps just slaughtered and head chopped and burned, leaving great piles of dead animals and a few headless human bodies. These are the things that can happen once war mentality sets in and people want to do the same or worse to their enemies -- and then those enemy people want to do the same or worse -- a very ugly cycle of revenge.

Now, do I think Bosnian Muslims and Croats are horrible people? Nope. Some did horrible things, to the horror of their own peoples, who are mostly decent human beings. Some Serbs did absolutely horrible things, too, and decent Serbs were horrified at what they did. These types of wars are especially hideous. As for the Croatian military, some were very professional and correct, in particular the Alpines. The ZNG (home guard) not so much. By the way, my ancestors on both sides came to the US in the 1600s from England. I have to ties to or roots in the Balkans, nor in Ukraine or Russia. I do have friends in both Ukraine and Russia, as well as in the Balkans.

**Mind you, I am hardly claiming there would have been no armed conflicts in BiH at all had Izetbegovic let his signature to Lisbon stand, but at least there would have been a framework, an agreement signed by all parties. As it was, there was no framework, no peace plan, with UN peacekeeping troops deployed where there was no peace to keep. It was a bloody free for all. It wasn't until Dayton in the autumn of 1995 that there was a peace to keep. At least in Ukraine 2014-2022, the OSCE had the Minsk peace agreement to monitor, even if neither side kept it. (I say monitor because it was strictly a monitoring mission, not a peacekeeping mission, same as ECMM in former Yugoslavia, although there was no agreement to monitor in former Y, which made things interesting).
 

Capt. Ironpants

Active Member
Sorry to interrupt the flow here! I wrote my last days ago and finally posted it.

I suppose I wrote some of it because it troubles me greatly when some here seem to vilify entire peoples and I go silent for a good while. Ascribing collective guilt (holding entire peoples responsible for horrid things done by some of their people in the past) is one of the roots of continuing cycles of horror and war in this world. The Poles eventually forgave the Ukrainians for what a portion of their people did in the past. Yet some can't seem keep from hanging onto what the Soviets did, even during the same time, tarring all Russians with that brush. Most Croatian Serbs had forgiven the Croats for what the Ustase did to their people during WWII -- until some (not all) Croats revived that whole vibe at independence (sort of like as happened in Ukraine, where a minority of Ukrainians conflated nationalism with Banderism/Nazi-ism and the only time their country had briefly sort been independent, but certainly not exactly the same), and so there was yet another bloody cycle. But there is no reasoning with that attitude, especially once war mentality has set in, so I just go quiet. (For the record, I would feel the same if anyone tarred all Ukrainians with the Nazi brush -- I just don't hold with forever blaming a whole people for the actions of only a portion.)

Anyway, I finally decided to speak up a bit. If my views on this are not welcome, I suppose I will hear about it!

(This is not directed at you, rsemmes, in case there is any confusion, as my reply was to you. I have not noticed you doing that.)
 
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Capt. Ironpants

Active Member
I added the italics because I want to focus on that, though the rest of the quoted part applies too.

I strongly disagree with that statement. Nationalization is the tool of the state when it deems that the national interest is greater than private rights, regardless of whether the country's government is authoritarian or democratic. It's true that authoritarian governments often abuse this tool, but it remains a tool of the state regardless of ideology. Whether it's good or bad is more a matter of how and when it's used. It's like a hammer. It's a blunt force tool. It's not something we want to use willy-nilly. And there are a great many situations where the hammer is the wrong tool. But nevertheless you have a hammer in your toolbox, because sometimes you need one.

Also keep in mind that nationalization does not necessarily exclude compensation. True, at its core force or the threat of force is used to take away something, but like its close cousin the eminent domain, the government can offer compensation. This compensation can even be at fair market value, though again what we remember is usually the bad cases where there's no compensation or it's nowhere close to fair value.

Going back to Starlink, all governments have the power to compel businesses residing in their country (or if an international company, the parts that operate within that country) to do something. This was used in World War 2 even before Presumably Starlink was not given the option to refuse when the US Department of Defense negotiated a contract for service in Ukraine to be used by the Ukrainian military, but they are very definitely getting paid. Now, as long as Starlink follows the contract, I don't believe they're in any danger of nationalization. But if they refuse still, especially after getting paid, then the option is on the table. Because it is a tool of the state.
In WWII, we had a formal declaration of war. Last I checked, our Congress has not declared war on Russia.

How to define "national interest" in such a case as this, anyway? While politicians and private citizens may define it any way they please, where is the legal definition absent a declaration of war or attack on us? There are many Americans who do not see the war in Ukraine as being of vital national interest, and that is their right, given no declaration of war. How to legally justify confiscating Starlink and all its assets "in the national interest" when the "national interest" involved is attacking and sinking the naval assets of a country with which we are not at war and which has not attacked us or engaged in piracy against our shipping or whatever? That would certainly be an interesting court case.

If you're going to go with the Eminent Domain argument, then there must be a "public good" involved, with the public being the American public, not the public of Ukraine or any other country. Again, an interesting court case.

Anyway, it appears it was all sorted without resorting to such draconian measures, thankfully.
 

KipPotapych

Well-Known Member
Oh, please. Selective quoting can be used to make anyone sound unreasonable. You lower yourself by using such tactic.
Sorry, but I’d disagree here and stand exactly by what I said. I do not believe there was any context lost by “trimming“ the original post. Especially because I continued my post providing further commentary on the subject. We are all fully aware what the topic is and in what context the quoted part was said. Or should I come back right back at you with your comment for singling out the part of my post from the rest of it?

So I will repeat myself to make it absolutely clear what I meant to say. Sounds exactly like what an authoritarian government would do. No sane leader in a free democratic society would take threats of nationalization to an individual operating his business within the boundaries of the law. The original poster implied, actually clearly stated in the part I quoted, that it was not Musk’s decision to make then and he should not do so again or else (note, there was no reference made to any contract in place). Of course it was his decision, fully within his rights: neither Pentagon, nor White House had anything to do with it. In fact, it was company’s decision to make and no one else’s. Note that I use Musk and company interchangeably because he has full control of that company via nearly 80% of the voting rights. Hence, what Vivendi suggested should have been done there is exactly what an authoritarian regime would do. The only irony here is that I wasn’t even surprised that it came from an individual sitting on a the highest horse (see previous posts on the subject) outlining the greatness of the values of the “free world”. The values are great, no doubt. So is the irony though.

Seriously, eminent domain is a tool of any government, and use of eminent domain does not mean the government is authoritarian. Merely that the government has chosen to exercise its power.



What happened last year happened last year, and the fact that SpaceX is still in private hands shows that the US government does not exercise their eminent domain power carelessly. However, the US Department of Defense now has a contract with Starlink to provide service to Ukraine and I am saying that if Elon Musk caused SpaceX to break that contract, well, the US then has good reason to compel SpaceX to fulfill their contract. This is basic contract law.

Again, if Elon Musk's interference happened last year, that was then. But now the situation is different. There is a contract, and SpaceX has been paid for that contract. If he interferes again, SpaceX will be held liable to a willful breach of contract.
Sure, any government has that domain, but only certain governments implement that domain in the careless manner. Which is what was suggested.

It did happen last year, but still raises the concern and outrage. Pretty sure I explained why it was within his domain to do what he did. I am not talking about some hypothetical ifs and buts, but about what actually happened and the fact that, as a result, reasonable people signed a contract which I am sure defines everyone’s obligations.

For the hypothetical if he were to break the obligations as defined in the contract that didn’t exist before, we would have to wait and see what happens. I doubt nationalization is openly on the table even in that case.

Again, Vivendi clearly talked about the past and that it should not happen again, everything else being the same; you are now talking about the future where circumstances are completely different. What I did in my previous post was outlined why Vivendi was completely wrong in his postulate, as well as outlined the actual steps that were taken in order to avoid such a situation in the future. I am not even sure what you are talking about, frankly. You are basically quoting me and saying what I already said? I am not following the purpose though.


read the first amendment. Gives the US government 5e power to take. They’ve got to compensate him but they’ve got the power.
Art
I did. I also read a bit on the nationalization history in the US and, in my opinion, there is about 0 percent chance this can happen in the circumstances we are discussing here.

Edit: while this article is completely unrelated to the subject at hand (RU - UA war), it talks about quite a few examples of nationalization that took place in the USA, the surrounding circumstances and the results:


Upon reading, one realizes pretty quickly how absurd the idea is in the current environment.
 
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KipPotapych

Well-Known Member
In WWII, we had a formal declaration of war. Last I checked, our Congress has not declared war on Russia.

How to define "national interest" in such a case as this, anyway? While politicians and private citizens may define it any way they please, where is the legal definition absent a declaration of war or attack on us? There are many Americans who do not see the war in Ukraine as being of vital national interest, and that is their right, given no declaration of war. How to legally justify confiscating Starlink and all its assets "in the national interest" when the "national interest" involved is attacking and sinking the naval assets of a country with which we are not at war and which has not attacked us or engaged in piracy against our shipping or whatever? That would certainly be an interesting court case.

If you're going to go with the Eminent Domain argument, then there must be a "public good" involved, with the public being the American public, not the public of Ukraine or any other country. Again, an interesting court case.

Anyway, it appears it was all sorted without resorting to such draconian measures, thankfully.
Too much common sense, Captain Ironpants!

Edit: I am also glad to see you are still around; I haven’t seen you posting for a while.
 
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Capt. Ironpants

Active Member
Too much common sense, Captain Ironpants!

Edit: I am also glad to see you are still around; I haven’t seen you posting for a while.
Aw, thanks. As for some thinking Musk was nuts for not materially assisting with sinking the Russian fleet at Sevastopol, and for thinking it might go nuclear, well ...

That would have been sorta like Russia's Pearl Harbor, no? And look what we ended up dropping on Japan. Twice.

Some will argue that we had not invaded anyone at the time, so not a fair comparison. What about the Philippines? See: Philippine–American War (which was not pretty). So, what if the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor on behalf of the Philippines? (Of course they did not, but just to make a hypothetical case similar to this one.) Would we have acted any differently? Nah, we would have still gone all nuclear on them. Can one really blame Musk for not wanting to risk that? After all, there is a very famous historical precedent.

Edit: I read the forum every day, but have stayed quiet, as explained in my post right before the one you replied to. I learn so much here!

Edit2: I used the Philippines as a hypothetical example instead of our annexation of Hawaii itself, as that was more our usual regime change thing than an actual invasion. In case anyone was wondering.
 
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2007yellow430

Active Member
In WWII, we had a formal declaration of war. Last I checked, our Congress has not declared war on Russia.

How to define "national interest" in such a case as this, anyway? While politicians and private citizens may define it any way they please, where is the legal definition absent a declaration of war or attack on us? There are many Americans who do not see the war in Ukraine as being of vital national interest, and that is their right, given no declaration of war. How to legally justify confiscating Starlink and all its assets "in the national interest" when the "national interest" involved is attacking and sinking the naval assets of a country with which we are not at war and which has not attacked us or engaged in piracy against our shipping or whatever? That would certainly be an interesting court case.

If you're going to go with the Eminent Domain argument, then there must be a "public good" involved, with the public being the American public, not the public of Ukraine or any other country. Again, an interesting court case.

Anyway, it appears it was all sorted without resorting to such draconian measures, thankfully.
[/QUOTE
the war and the result is the common good.
 

Capt. Ironpants

Active Member
the war and the result is the common good.
Can you prove that it is a "public good" that would improve the lives of Americans? In a court of law? Like a road or a national park or a dam -- or a public utility that provides services to American citizens (not citizens of another country living in another country nor the military of another country)? These are the types of "public good" to which Eminent Domain applies.

Is it a "public good" to sink the fleet of a foreign country with which we are not at war? In the sense that phrase is used under Eminent Domain? I can't see how that could ever stand up in court.

Even if we had declared war on Russia, I seriously doubt Eminent Domain and "the public good" would even come into play. Perhaps something related to war powers might.

Perhaps you would care to explain? One liners tend to be mostly frowned upon here, and for good reason.

Just because it is your opinion that it would be a "public good" to sink the Russian fleet does not make it so under Eminent Domain. This is why we have a thing called Rule of Law.

Can you cite a legal precedent that would apply? I strongly suspect there is not one.
 

2007yellow430

Active Member
Can you prove that it is a "public good" that would improve the lives of Americans? In a court of law? Like a road or a national park or a dam -- or a public utility that provides services to American citizens (not citizens of another country living in another country nor the military of another country)? These are the types of "public good" to which Eminent Domain applies.

Is it a "public good" to sink the fleet of a foreign country with which we are not at war? In the sense that phrase is used under Eminent Domain? I can't see how that could ever stand up in court.

Even if we had declared war on Russia, I seriously doubt Eminent Domain and "the public good" would even come into play. Perhaps something related to war powers might.

Perhaps you would care to explain? One liners tend to be mostly frowned upon here, and for good reason.

Just because it is your opinion that it would be a "public good" to sink the Russian fleet does not make it so under Eminent Domain. This is why we have a thing called Rule of Law.

Can you cite a legal precedent that would apply? I strongly suspect there is not one.
By the time it was lighted,it effect would be done. However proof is easy: defeat of Russia.


Art
 

Feanor

Super Moderator
Staff member
By the time it was lighted,it effect would be done. However proof is easy: defeat of Russia.


Art
There is nothing easy about arguing an eminent domain case in court. This is simply not true. You may be able to convince a judge that there is a increase in public welfare here, but there's no guarantee it would go your way. Especially since we're talking about taking satellites in orbit which to the best of my knowledge would be an unprecedented use of the power. And nothing in the link you provided addresses the arguments made by Capt. Ironpants. The points being made against nationalizing Starlink using eminent domain primarily point to the difficulty and expensiveness (not only financially) of this not that it can't be done, but that it is undesirable. There are better ways to control this sort of behavior.
 

2007yellow430

Active Member
There is nothing easy about arguing an eminent domain case in court. This is simply not true. You may be able to convince a judge that there is a increase in public welfare here, but there's no guarantee it would go your way. Especially since we're talking about taking satellites in orbit which to the best of my knowledge would be an unprecedented use of the power. And nothing in the link you provided addresses the arguments made by Capt. Ironpants. The points being made against nationalizing Starlink using eminent domain primarily point to the difficulty and expensiveness (not only financially) of this not that it can't be done, but that it is undesirable. There are better ways to control this sort of behavior.
ive done it. Some Judges are easy, some not. The FederalnSystem can be gamed if you know what you’re doing.

Art
 

Feanor

Super Moderator
Staff member
ive done it. Some Judges are easy, some not. The FederalnSystem can be gamed if you know what you’re doing.

Art
Well if that isn't terrifying, I don't know what is. I wasn't on the "authoritarian behavior" boat. It seemed an exaggeration. But if you're correct, then that's spot on. That having been said, can you elaborate on this? You've argued a satellite eminent domain case? Presumably not. So what did it look like and what were the relevant factors? How do they apply here? Is there an established legal test for evaluating these types of seizures?

EDIT: Not to sass, but... was it easy? If yes, the system is broken. If no, then... see above?
 
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