Elon Musk Is Bilking Hurricane Victims With 'Free' Starlink

By Mike Redmond | Social Media | October 9, 2024 |

By Mike Redmond | Social Media | October 9, 2024 |

In the lead-up to Jumping Johnny Jackboot doing his weirdo happy hops for Trump — An image I almost used, but I couldn’t resist whatever is happening up top. What the hell is that face? — Elon Musk spent a good portion of last week spreading even more disinformation than usual. Specifically, pushing flat-out lies about FEMA and the federal government response to Hurricane Helene in North Carolina.

Elon’s conspiracy mongering got so bad that Republicans on the ground had to repeatedly tell people to spreading that sh*t because it’s causing actual harm. Constituents hopped on social media dumb are tying up communication lines to report non-existent blockades or tales of FEMA stealing donation money and giving it to those darn illegals. The situation got so out of hand that on Tuesday night House Republicans and Fox News got together to make it clear that people are getting their disaster relief from the federal government. In short, Donald Trump and his MAGA horde are full of crap, and finally, the grown-ups in the room are saying “knock it off.”

Naturally, there was a profit motive in all of this for Elon. He wants people to distrust the federal government and turn to him as their savior. Just look at his kind benevolence in handing out “free” Starlink access to hurricane victims — provided they can somehow receive a UPS delivery for their Starlink terminal that will cost them $400. No big deal in a disaster zone, amirite? Oh, and I hope they don’t need it soon!

Via The Register:

“If UPS can drive a truck to your house [to deliver the Starlink receiver], you’re not in that bad of shape,” [Boone resident Kinney] Baughman told us, so if you can get that terminal, you might not really need it by the time it gets there in Starlink’s 2-3 week delivery window.

And that’s not even including the need to power the thing.

“Assuming someone can get over the one or two, if not more, bridges that are down and physically get their hands on the device, you still need electricity to run the thing,” Baughman noted. “Thousands of people are out of power still and hundreds if not thousands of those don’t have a generator.”

In a nutshell, Elon’s offer of free Starlink wasn’t exactly free. People have to pony up for the terminals, and the “free” part is basically a month of free access before they’re locked into a plan. And they will be, which is the entire point.

“[Musk is] just building a customer base,” Baughman told The Register, which did some further digging into the situation, prompting Starlink to change its wording so that people know what they’re really getting into: Getting fleeced in the middle of a disaster.

As for Musk’s “Dark MAGA” love affair with Trump, I saw an interesting theory that I hope is true. It’s almost definitely horsesh*t, but I genuinely want this to be happening.

“So apparently the word in the tech world is this: Elon’s embrace of Trump is because Elon thinks he can essentially run the White House while Trump rots in front of Fox News,” Will Stancil writes. “It’s a way to circumvent the ‘natural born citizen’ requirement and let Musk serve as de facto president.”

Dear God, please let Elon actually believe this. I’m not trying to lionize Trump or anything, but his undisputed superpower is getting marks to debase themselves for him and then throwing them under the bus like they never even existed. I guarantee Musk’s ego is so engorged that he thinks that won’t happen to him in embarrassing and spectacular fashion.

Buddy, it will, and I’m gonna love to see it.

(Via The Register)