#secret invasion (2022)

[juridical-angel-blog]

Special Icon Picture Tony Stark ''Iron Man Secret Invasion Comic 2022''!

[kingdomcomicscenter-blog]

[avengerscompound]

Maria Hill

Secret Invasion (2022)

[blackhillverse]

comic maria hill would never do this to me, she’s the one being three steps ahead and arresting skrulls impersonating nick.

[oluka]

Enjoy these panels of Tony being a badass and recognized as such.

From Secret Invasion #4 (2022).

[starseedpatriot]

The New York Times disclosed yesterday that the CIA built "12 Secret Spy Bases" in Ukraine, waging a shadow war against Russia for the past decade. (3 min, 17 sec)

After a U.S.-supported violent coup toppled Ukraine's democratically elected government, CIA Director John Brennan visited Kyiv in April 2014.

Shortly after, the new Ukrainian government launched an "anti-terror operation" against its Russian-speaking citizens in Eastern Ukraine.

For eight years leading up to Russia's invasion in 2022, Ukraine's government, with help from the CIA, relentlessly bombed Eastern Ukraine.

Millions of innocent civilians were caught in the crossfire of a geopolitical chess match between Russia and the United States.

This is part of the story often ignored by the Western press.

@KanekoaTheGreat

[taylorswiftstyle]

MTV Video Music Awards | September 11, 2024

Monse Fall/Winter 2024 custom

For Future Reference Vintage 'Omega Chain' - no longer available

Rainbow K Jewelry ‘Diamond Horn Earring’ - € 7215.00 Ali Weiss Jewelry ‘Baby Pave Hoop With 2 Diamond Drop’ - $375.00 Grown Brilliance ‘Emerald and Heart Lab Grown Diamond Two Stone Stud Earrings’ - $1,895.00

Lizzie Mandler Jewelry ‘Pave Knife Edge Bracelet’ - $13,665.00 Mateo New York ‘Carabiner Bracelet’ - $300.00 Mateo New York ‘Lock Link Bracelet’ - $350.00 Rainbow K Jewelry ‘Diamond Horn Bangle’ - €18,575.00

Ali Weiss Jewelry ‘Thin Gold Band With 5 Diamonds’ - $650.00 Jade Ruzzo ‘Tennessee Drop Ring in Demantoid Garnet’ - $5,600.00 Retrouvai ‘Platinum Magna Ring’ - price upon request Grown Brilliance‘Marquise Lab Grown Diamond Eternity Band’ - $2,190.00

A brief moment of pride for me because I happened to predict a different look from this exact same collection for the MTV VMAs. I'll take the win! Taylor changed partway through the show, shedding her tartan Dior look for a party look that was easier for her to dance in but still retained a high shine award show appeal. While Taylor's look is obviously custom, the tapestry alien print and buckle detail are clear riffs from the Monse FW2024 runway. This was a fun and flirty mid-show change that reminded me of her strategy at the 2022 MTV EMAs. Though for that award show, there was a clearer throughline between both her looks as they were by the same designer - David Koma. Here, there isn't as obvious a connect between the two aesthetics. Although perhaps it's the notion of translating older notions of art into surreal, modern takes. With Dior, an ode to the secret messages Mary Queen of Scots embroidered in her clothes and with this Monse look, reimagining the antique tapestry to feature futuristic visions of alien invasion. Which feels very "Down Bad" in imagery.

For her second look of the evening, Taylor swapped out her singular pair of Lorraine Schwartz earrings (a go-to jeweler for her red carpet looks) and tapped into one of her style pillars: indie designers.

The mix of metals feels very Taylor - she often swaps between gold and silver and looks equally great in both, lucky her. Though I did most appreciate the silver tying in to the buckle detail on her Monse dress.

Of all her jewels, the piece that most caught my eye is Jade Ruzzo's ‘Tennessee’ ring. I spoke to the designer and she described the Tennessee as her “signature” collection, inspired by her late father who was a drummer. “I designed the Tennessee ring, the first piece from the collection, while in Tennessee,” she told me. “Tennessee has a heart and soul that I felt I could literally hear a beat to - it felt like it moved.” Jade translated the kinetic energy she felt in the city into a hand bezel ring with hanging gemstones that create a subtle movement - “as if [the stones] are dancing on each piece.” She added, “I wanted the movement to be subtle enough that it felt Iike soft steady music throughout the day.“ What an appropriate thing for Taylor, who calls Tennessee her home, to wear.

Photo by John Shearer via Getty Images

[wilwheaton]

Elon Musk’s company SpaceX is a U.S. defense contractor, with billions of dollars in Pentagon contracts. That makes his intervention to thwart Ukrainian military operations a U.S. national security concern, not only because America supports Ukraine’s self-defense against Russia’s invasion, but also because it suggests the U.S. military may have left itself open to similar disruptions. Excerpts from biographer Walter Isaacson’s book, Elon Musk, show Musk denying Ukraine Starlink internet access off the coast of Crimea in Sept. 2022, causing Ukrainian sea drones to stop functioning. A private citizen thwarting an in-progress military operation like this is unprecedented. [...] Congress should exercise its oversight powers and look into both SpaceX’s actions in Ukraine and the extent of American dependence on Musk’s company. At minimum, it’s an information security risk. Isaacson says Musk texted him about the Ukrainian sea drones headed to Crimea as he was trying to decide what to do. No one should be telling journalists about secret military operations as they’re happening. Elon Musk especially shouldn’t be in position to, given his direct contact with foreign officials, and his apparent affinity for online trolls, including contributors to Russian state media outlet RT. He’s free to associate with whomever he wants, and to express his opinions about the war (even if he doesn’t know what he’s talking about and has vast means to spread his thoughts widely). But a defense contractor controlled by one volatile personality, who is at best ignorant of international power politics and susceptible to Russian propaganda, and does not respect that national security decisions are up to governments rather than him personally, is not someone the United States should consider a reliable business partner.

U.S. Government Can’t Allow Elon Musk the Power to Intervene in Wars

[apazmackpie]

Happy birthday, Martin Freeman!! 🥳

53 years old, 53 characters he played.

I finished on time!! But sadly it's not as detailed as i wanted at first. :(

Anyway, if you wanna know who is who, i'll let you all the names under the cut.

From left to right and top to bottom:

Ricky Beck, "Casualty" (1998)

Frank, "I just want to kiss you" (1998)

Jaap, "Lock, stock" (2000)

Jamie, "Men only" (2001)

Ricky-C, "Ali G indahouse" (2002)

D. S. Stringer, "Margery and Gladys" (2003)

John/Jack, "Love, actually" (2003)

Tim Canterbury, "The Office" (2001-2003)

Mike, "Hardware" (2003-2004)

Declan, "Shaun of the Dead" (2004)

Kevin, "Call register" (2004) and "Rubbish" (2007)

Vila, "Blake's Junction 7" (2005)

Arthur Dent, "Hittchiker's guide to the galaxy" (2005)

Ed Robinson, "The Robinsons" (2005)

Matt Norris, "Confetti" (2005)

Sandy Hoffman, "Breaking and Entering" (2006)

Jeremy, "Dedication" (2007

Gary Shaller, "The good night" (2007)

Sergeant, "Hot Fuzz" (2007)

Pig, "Lonely hearts" (2007)

Chris Ashworth, "The all together" (2007)

Rembrandt van Rijn, "Nightwatching" (2007)

Mr. Codlin, "The old curiosity shop" (2007)

Danny Reed, "Boy meets Girl" (2009)

Chris Curry, "Micro Men" (2009)

Paul Maddens, "Nativity!" (2009)

Hector Dixon, "Wild target" (2010)

John Watson, "Sherlock" (2010-2017)

Clive Buckle, "The girl is mime" (2010)

Alvin Finkel, "Swinging with the Finkels" (2011)

Simon Forrester, "What's your number?" (2011)

Dr. Williams, "The Voorman problem" (2011)

Pirate with a scarf/Number Two, "Pirates!" (2012)

Albert, "Animals" (2012)

Bilbo Baggins, "The Hobbit trilogy" (2012-2014)

Don, "Svengali" (Movie from 2013 and series from 2009)

Oliver Chamberlain, "The world's end" (2013)

Lester Nygaard, "Fargo" (2014)

Milton Frutchman, "The Eichmann show" (2015)

Steve Marriot, "Midnight of my life" (2015)

Iain MacKelpie, "Whiskey tango foxtrot" (2016)

Everett Ross, "Captain America: Civil War" (2016), "Black Panther" (2018), "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" (2022), "Secret Invasion" (2023)

Phil Rask, "StartUp" (2016-2017)

Michael Priddle, "Ghost Stories" (2017)

Andy Rose, "Cargo" (2017)

Thomas, "The operative" (2019)

Charlie Green, "Ode to joy" (2019)

Stephen Fulcher, "A confession" (2019)

Paul Worsley, "Breeders" (2020-2023)

Harold Wallach, "Angelyne" (2022)

Chris Carson, "The responder" (2022-2024)

Jonathan Miller, "Miller's Girl" (2024)

Richard III, from the theather play with the same name. (2014)

[felassan]

Coming in 2024: Mass Effect: Priority Hagalaz - The Board Game

Text:

"The year is 2186. On the remote world Hagalaz, a research cruiser from the terrorist organisation Cerberus has crashed directly in the path of a deadly storm. With little time before the storm hits, Shepard must lead their squad through the cruiser to uncover its sinister secrets and keep them out of the hands of the enemy. However, the ship holds more dangers than just its former crew… Mass EffectTM: Priority Hagalaz - The Board Game is a cooperative, story-driven game for 1-4 players designed by Eric M. Lang and Calvin Wong Tze Loon. The card-driven AI system and evolving stories respond to your actions, with your early choices even influencing later missions, while the branching narrative ensures unique experiences with each playthrough. So, prepare to gather Shepard’s squad from a selection of teammates from the Mass EffectTM Universe, customise their abilities, equipment, and powers, and get to the bottom of the mystery on Hagalaz!"

[source, publisher's info page on the product and link to sign up for news about it, tweet source, tweet source two, tweet source three]

Some more info:

"A board game based on the video game series Mass Effect will have players becoming members of the SSV Normandy crew battling Cerberus. Mass Effect the Board Game - Priority Hagalaz is an upcoming board game that will take place during the events of Mass Effect 3. In the game, players will take the roles of either male or female Shepard, Asari biotic Liara, Turian soldier Garrus, Krogan leader Wrex or Quarian technician Tali, as they embark on a mission on the planet Hagalaz - which is the world the Shadow Broker’s ship orbits during the Lair of the Shadow Broker downloadable content released for Mass Effect 2. In the midst of the Reaper invasion, Shepard and their crew investigate reports of a Cerberus ship crashing during a storm on Hagalaz, in an entirely new mission not found in the video games. In hopes of acquiring more information, resources and assistance with which to fight off the terrifying Reapers - as well as shut down the immoral efforts of the Cerberus organisation - players will need to explore Hagalaz and face its many dangers: both Cerberus and non-Cerberus alike. During the co-op game for one to four players, the group can experience a narrative-driven campaign that will enable players to explore different storylines and outcomes depending on their choices. As their chosen characters, players can upgrade their unique abilities by spending the experience points they gain, as well as unlock new powers through optional loyalty missions. The group can also improve their various pieces of equipment and weapons as they advance through the campaign. According to the game’s publisher, Modiphius, the narrative choices made by players will have consequences further down the line, with there being potential for multiple playthroughs resulting in never-before-seen experiences. Mass Effect the Board Game - Priority: Hagalaz was co-created by Eric Lang, the creator behind board games such as Blood Rage and Rising Sun, and Calvin Wong Tze Loon, whose previous tabletop title was 2022’s Lands of Galzyr. Besides Mass Effect the Board Game - Priority: Hagalaz, Modiphius is also responsible for publishing various tabletop roleplaying games such as Dune - Adventures in the Imperium and miniature wargames like Fallout: Factions. The Mass Effect board game will be released via Asmodee. The release date for Mass Effect the Board Game - Priority: Hagalaz is set for sometime later this year."

[source]

[source, two, three, four, five]

An email from Modiphius reads:

Text version:

"We’re excited to announce that Mass Effect the Board Game - Priority: Hagalaz is coming to tabletops later this year! For more information, sign up to join the crew of the Normandy here. Set during the events of Mass Effect 3, the crew of Normandy has one more mission. It is the year 2186, and the Reapers have invaded the galaxy. Because the Council ignored Commander Shepard’s warnings, the Citadel Races are overwhelmed and on the verge of losing the war. Aboard the Normandy, Shepard carries out missions to prepare the Crucible, an ancient alien superweapon, for a last-chance attempt to defeat the Reapers. It’s a race against time, and Shepard must seize every possible advantage. On the remote world Hagalaz, a research cruiser from the terrorist organisation Cerberus has crashed directly in the path of a deadly storm. With little time before the storm hits, Shepard must lead their squad through the cruiser to uncover its sinister secrets and keep them out of the hands of the enemy. However, the ship holds more dangers than just its former crew. Deep within the shattered cruiser stir creatures and enemies far worse than the Cerberus forces that guard them. Mass Effect the Board Game - Priority: Hagalaz is a co-operative, story-driven game for 1-4 players designed by Eric M. Lang and Calvin Wong Tze Loon 黃子倫. A branching, narrative campaign allows for multiple playthroughs with a different experience every time. Card-driven AI and evolving stories respond to your actions – your early choices influence later missions. Gather Shepard’s squad from a selection of teammates from the Mass Effect trilogy: Liara, Tali, Wrex, and Garrus. Customise and upgrade your squad’s abilities, equipment, and powers as they gain experience. Enhance them further by unlocking unique powers with optional loyalty missions. The board game features six highly detailed 32mm scale pre-assembled plastic miniatures of male and female Shepherd, Liara, Tali, Wrex and Garrus. For more information, sign up to join the crew of the Normandy here."

[source: Modiphius]

[sersi]

Brie Larson as Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel in Avengers: Endgame (2019) Lashana Lynch as Maria Rambeau/Captain Marvel in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) Emilia Clarke as G'iah in Secret Invasion 1.06: Home (2023)

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

Harry’s Lawsuits and Legal Threats

So I started listing this out but there's just too many and too much information to share, so y'all are getting another screenshots-of-spreadsheets posts. But first, the TL;DR.

These are only the lawsuits that involve the Sussexes as plaintiffs. This does not include any other lawsuits or cases that named the Sussexes as interested parties (i.e., the Heritage Foundation FOIA lawsuit or the P Diddy case).

Since 2019, the Sussexes have sued 11 times. Of the 11 lawsuits:

3 are still active and ongoing.

The judge threw out 1 lawsuit.

Harry dropped 1 lawsuit and was fined either £316,000 or £376,000 (it's not clear).

The Sussexes together dropped or modified one lawsuit that turned into a second lawsuit.

The Sussexes received monetary damages in 5 lawsuits. We know the damages for 2 lawsuits (£1 and £140,000), and we know that for 2 other lawsuits Harry pledged to donate his damages to charity after legal fees were paid (and no, we don't know that he actually did).

The Sussexes also made 5 separate notices for action (aka threatened to sue) and filed 1 IPSO complaint. I believe the IPSO complaint was the gateway for the Sussexes deciding to start suing everyone, which is why I included it.

Despite the Sussexes winning damages and appearing somewhat, I am fairly certain that they aren't actually seeing a whole lot of that money because the legal expenses for 3 still-pending lawsuits are probably outrageous. Anyway.

The lawsuits:

Sussexes v Splash News - Cotswolds House (January 2019)

Meghan v Associated Newspapers - Tom Markle Letter (October 2019)

Active Harry v News Group Newspapers - Phone hacking (October 2019); this is the lawsuit where there's now concerns of Harry withholding or destroying evidence so Moehringer and some grey suits have been requested to give evidence.

Harry v Mirror Group News - Phone hacking (October 2019)

Sussexes v John Does - Privacy Invasion and Paparazzi Harassment (July 2020); this lawsuit was dropped after being modified into ⬇️

Sussexes v X17 - Privacy Invasion and Paparazzi Harassment (July 2020);

Active Harry v RAVEC - State-funded protection and security (July 2020); Harry initially lost this case, he appealed, the judge denied the appeal, Harry appealed the denial of the appeal, the appellate judge agreed and overturned the denial of the appeal, and now Harry is appealing the first loss.

Harry v Home Office - Personally paying for police protection (uncertain)

Harry v Associated Newspapers - Royal Marines (December 2020)

Harry v Associated Newspapers - Keeping the lawsuit to be able to pay for police protection himself a secret (February 2022)

Active Harry v Associated Newspapers - Elton John (October 2022); in November 2023, the judge ruled it could go to trial. It's expected to begin January 2025, so happy birthday to Kate.

The legal threats:

(IPSO Complaint) Harry v Daily Mail - Elephants (April 2019)

Vancouver Island Papwalk (January 2020)

Harry v The Sun and Dan Wootton (June 2020)

Harry v The Times - Invictus Fundraiser (September 2020)

Harry v BBC - Queen's Consent to use Lilibet (June 2021)

Sussexes v The Times - Archewell (January 2022)

Now the reason you're still reading this... (spreadsheets will blow up to be readable when you click on the image)

[kingdomcomicscenter-blog]

[avengerscompound]

Tony Stark

Secret Invasion (2022)

[mostlysignssomeportents]

At long last, a meaningful step to protect Americans' privacy

This Saturday (19 Aug), I'm appearing at the San Diego Union-Tribune Festival of Books. I'm on a 2:30PM panel called "Return From Retirement," followed by a signing:

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/festivalofbooks

Privacy raises some thorny, subtle and complex issues. It also raises some stupid-simple ones. The American surveillance industry's shell-game is founded on the deliberate confusion of the two, so that the most modest and sensible actions are posed as reductive, simplistic and unworkable.

Two pillars of the American surveillance industry are credit reporting bureaux and data brokers. Both are unbelievably sleazy, reckless and dangerous, and neither faces any real accountability, let alone regulation.

Remember Equifax, the company that doxed every adult in America and was given a mere wrist-slap, and now continues to assemble nonconsensual dossiers on every one of us, without any material oversight improvements?

https://memex.craphound.com/2019/07/20/equifax-settles-with-ftc-cfpb-states-and-consumer-class-actions-for-700m/

Equifax's competitors are no better. Experian doxed the nation again, in 2021:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/30/dox-the-world/#experian

It's hard to overstate how fucking scummy the credit reporting world is. Equifax invented the business in 1899, when, as the Retail Credit Company, it used private spies to track queers, political dissidents and "race mixers" so that banks and merchants could discriminate against them:

https://jacobin.com/2017/09/equifax-retail-credit-company-discrimination-loans

As awful as credit reporting is, the data broker industry makes it look like a paragon of virtue. If you want to target an ad to "Rural and Barely Making It" consumers, the brokers have you covered:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/13/public-interest-pharma/#axciom

More than 650,000 of these categories exist, allowing advertisers to target substance abusers, depressed teens, and people on the brink of bankruptcy:

https://themarkup.org/privacy/2023/06/08/from-heavy-purchasers-of-pregnancy-tests-to-the-depression-prone-we-found-650000-ways-advertisers-label-you

These companies follow you everywhere, including to abortion clinics, and sell the data to just about anyone:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/07/safegraph-spies-and-lies/#theres-no-i-in-uterus

There are zillions of these data brokers, operating in an unregulated wild west industry. Many of them have been rolled up into tech giants (Oracle owns more than 80 brokers), while others merely do business with ad-tech giants like Google and Meta, who are some of their best customers.

As bad as these two sectors are, they're even worse in combination – the harms data brokers (sloppy, invasive) inflict on us when they supply credit bureaux (consequential, secretive, intransigent) are far worse than the sum of the harms of each.

And now for some good news. The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, under the leadership of Rohit Chopra, has declared war on this alliance:

https://www.techdirt.com/2023/08/16/cfpb-looks-to-restrict-the-sleazy-link-between-credit-reporting-agencies-and-data-brokers/

They've proposed new rules limiting the trade between brokers and bureaux, under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, putting strict restrictions on the transfer of information between the two:

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/15/tech/privacy-rules-data-brokers/index.html

As Karl Bode writes for Techdirt, this is long overdue and meaningful. Remember all the handwringing and chest-thumping about Tiktok stealing Americans' data to the Chinese military? China doesn't need Tiktok to get that data – it can buy it from data-brokers. For peanuts.

The CFPB action is part of a muscular style of governance that is characteristic of the best Biden appointees, who are some of the most principled and competent in living memory. These regulators have scoured the legislation that gives them the power to act on behalf of the American people and discovered an arsenal of action they can take:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/18/administrative-competence/#i-know-stuff

Alas, not all the Biden appointees have the will or the skill to pull this trick off. The corporate Dems' darlings are mired in #LearnedHelplessness, convinced that they can't – or shouldn't – use their prodigious powers to step in to curb corporate power:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/10/the-courage-to-govern/#whos-in-charge

And it's true that privacy regulation faces stiff headwinds. Surveillance is a public-private partnership from hell. Cops and spies love to raid the surveillance industries' dossiers, treating them as an off-the-books, warrantless source of unconstitutional personal data on their targets:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/16/ring-ring-lapd-calling/#ring

These powerful state actors reliably intervene to hamstring attempts at privacy law, defending the massive profits raked in by data brokers and credit bureaux. These profits, meanwhile, can be mobilized as lobbying dollars that work lawmakers and regulators from the private sector side. Caught in the squeeze between powerful government actors (the true "Deep State") and a cartel of filthy rich private spies, lawmakers and regulators are frozen in place.

Or, at least, they were. The CFPB's discovery that it had the power all along to curb commercial surveillance follows on from the FTC's similar realization last summer:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/12/regulatory-uncapture/#conscious-uncoupling

I don't want to pretend that all privacy questions can be resolved with simple, bright-line rules. It's not clear who "owns" many classes of private data – does your mother own the fact that she gave birth to you, or do you? What if you disagree about such a disclosure – say, if you want to identify your mother as an abusive parent and she objects?

But there are so many stupid-simple privacy questions. Credit bureaux and data-brokers don't inhabit any kind of grey area. They simply should not exist. Getting rid of them is a project of years, but it starts with hacking away at their sources of profits, stripping them of defenses so we can finally annihilate them.

I'm kickstarting the audiobook for "The Internet Con: How To Seize the Means of Computation," a Big Tech disassembly manual to disenshittify the web and make a new, good internet to succeed the old, good internet. It's a DRM-free book, which means Audible won't carry it, so this crowdfunder is essential. Back now to get the audio, Verso hardcover and ebook:

http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/16/the-second-best-time-is-now/#the-point-of-a-system-is-what-it-does

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

[tomorrowusa]

Elon Musk, Donald Trump's chief pompom boy, has been secretly communicating with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin for the last few years.

A report that Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has been in regular contact over the past few years with President Vladimir Putin will not come as much of a surprise to officials in Ukraine—or to the frontline troops fighting a brutal war of attrition with Russian forces. In the few months after Putin’s illegal full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the South African-born billionaire was hailed a hero by the country’s defenders as they used Musk’s Starlink satellite terminals to coordinate their military operations. Freely provided by Musk in a gesture of solidarity, the terminals gave Ukrainians a crucial battleground edge against the numerically superior Russian forces. Since then, however, relations between Musk and Ukrainian leaders have deteriorated significantly. The Wall Street Journal report on the regular contact between Musk and the Kremlin—the newspaper says Putin even asked Musk not to activate Starlink over Taiwan as a favor to China’s Xi Jinping—will only confirm suspicions in Ukraine that, if not yet a full-blown Russian asset, Musk is becoming a Russian ally. And Starlink is the key. The portable satellite terminals, allowing reliable and secure internet access, remain the backbone of Ukraine’s frontline communications—although the bill is now picked up by the Pentagon rather than Starlink, a subsidiary of Musk’s SpaceX. Increasingly, however, the Russians are using them too. Ukrainian officials say Russian forces are deploying thousands of the terminals in captured Ukrainian territory, closing the technology gap and enabling their grindingly slow and brutal offensive in the Donetsk region. Because of international sanctions, Starlink cannot sell its hardware in Russia and its satellite do not cover Russian territory. But the Russians appear to have a reliable supply of smuggled Starlink terminals through a third country, which its forces can then use in Ukraine.

Well, now we know how Putin obtained those Starlink terminals.

While Russia illicitly using Starlink in communications networks and drones is an alarming sign that they can access American technology to make their drones better, they might not become commonplace. Russian forces on the ground are in desperate need of stable communications and the military might prioritize giving them Starlink access over putting the hardware in a drone that will more than likely be shot down after a single use. Even if Starlink is put in some Shahed variants, it’s unlikely that every single one of the dozens of drones launched per month would have it. Even so, Russia’s use of Starlink to coordinate its forces and drones create new worries for Ukraine and SpaceX alike.

It's deeply troubling that somebody with close ties to America's space program should be playing footsie with one of America's enemies.

With Election Day 10 days away, what are YOU doing in real life to defeat the Trump-Musk-Putin Axis? You can inform low information voters, you can help people vote, and you can shoot down bullshit you hear being publicly spewed by MAGA cultists.

If you don't have a bone spur or something, see how you can help in the final stretch of the campaign.

Volunteer | Kamala Harris for President