[Goose]

(Reuters) - U.S. negotiators pressing Kyiv for access to Ukraine's critical minerals have raised the possibility of cutting the country's access to Elon Musk's vital Starlink satellite internet system, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

https://x.com/phildstewart/status/1893094074166472944

This is obscene. Makes me embarrassed to be an American that we are acting like gangsters to a nation defending itself from an invading army that is continously committing atrocities and war crimes.

The mineral "deal" that Zelensky was surprised with and pressed to immediately sign had no actual security commitments from the US at all. None! It just gave the United States 50% of Ukraine's mineral rights, and in return Ukraine got no weapons, no soldiers, no alliance. And now we are threatening them like this. Shameful.

Totally agree.

Our allies (for now) and other countries that use US military tech will surely take interest in this as well. I imagine Europe will be working on developing their domestic defense industry in this new era.

I wish I had your confidence that they would. Right now, almost all of them all have significant political turmoil to deal with. Even Norway and Sweden have some issues. It is quite possible that "Europe" will do little or nothing. Lots of Europe wants to return to the status quo ante, where they had cheap natural gas and didn't fear Russia. They may chose to do exactly that, despite what has happened in Ukraine. Pretending that everything is OK may be politically more acceptable than dealing with "reality". I give that a 50% probability of happening. It is also possible that any nations who can will develop their own nuclear weapons. Certainly a few will simply align themselves with Putin and Russia, Hungary for sure and Slovakia maybe. Given how the US is behaving on the international stage right now, anything is possible.

[Goose]

(Reuters) - U.S. negotiators pressing Kyiv for access to Ukraine's critical minerals have raised the possibility of cutting the country's access to Elon Musk's vital Starlink satellite internet system, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

https://x.com/phildstewart/status/1893094074166472944

This is obscene. Makes me embarrassed to be an American that we are acting like gangsters to a nation defending itself from an invading army that is continously committing atrocities and war crimes.

The mineral "deal" that Zelensky was surprised with and pressed to immediately sign had no actual security commitments from the US at all. None! It just gave the United States 50% of Ukraine's mineral rights, and in return Ukraine got no weapons, no soldiers, no alliance. And now we are threatening them like this. Shameful.

Totally agree.

Our allies (for now) and other countries that use US military tech will surely take interest in this as well. I imagine Europe will be working on developing their domestic defense industry in this new era.

I wish I had your confidence that they would. Right now, almost all of them all have significant political turmoil to deal with. Even Norway and Sweden have some issues. It is quite possible that "Europe" will do little or nothing. Lots of Europe wants to return to the status quo ante, where they had cheap natural gas and didn't fear Russia. They may chose to do exactly that, despite what has happened in Ukraine. Pretending that everything is OK may be politically more acceptable than dealing with "reality". I give that a 50% probability of happening. It is also possible that any nations who can will develop their own nuclear weapons. Certainly a few will simply align themselves with Putin and Russia, Hungary for sure and Slovakia maybe. Given how the US is behaving on the international stage right now, anything is possible.