Also, like... who fucking cares? Take them down anyway. Let them lose their internet, and then find out exactly why. They should be informed about the services they're paying for.

While Russian companies and individuals are not authorized to sell Starlink, a gray market has emerged, fueled by the high demand from military forces and private buyers.

The Post reviewed four of the many Russian sites offering direct sales for the “special military operation,” the Kremlin’s euphemism for the war. Most terminals are sold through Telegram and start their journey in the Moscow area, before being funneled to the front.

One site offers a terminal and connection fees starting at just above $1,000. Customer service is free, and each client receives recommendations “to minimize risks of blocking,” the page notes, with glowing video testimonials from soldiers.

“We have been using Starlink for about a month. No complaints, the speed is good,” one review said, showing a terminal covered in camouflage. “Technical support works great.”

“The internet is flying, the men are happy,” another said. “Gentlemen, I recommend!”

To activate a device, users need a foreign phone number, email address and bank account to pay the monthly subscription fee, prompting suppliers to seek out people willing to lend their identities. Users in “client support” Telegram chats say it is easy to buy and register Starlink kits abroad. Most are obtained in Europe and transported through the United Arab Emirates. One page warns not to activate the terminal in Russia.

One supplier advised that connections for devices bought in the European Union could be blocked after 90 days of usage, suggesting one solution is to register using Ukrainian details.

Hard to shut down

Starlink can both disable individual terminals based on their ID numbers and block areas from receiving a signal, a practice called “geofencing,” the Federal Communications Commission told a U.N. regulator this year.

One person familiar with Starlink said that the company is technically capable of identifying the location of active terminals based on their pings up to satellites, but that it can be challenging to discern the user in the “forward edge of the battle area,” where Ukrainian and Russian troops are operating.

Stacie Pettyjohn, defense program director for the Center for a New American Security, said the U.S. effort to curb Russia’s use “doesn’t seem like it’s been hugely effective,” partly because of the shifting front lines.

“Ukrainian forces are in Russia now. Where exactly are the front lines?” she said. “If there’s a line drawn as to where it works and where it doesn’t, you’re basically fixing the front lines where they are and preventing the Ukrainians from going on the offensive.”

Ukrainian troops, for their part, said they also had concerns over denying access in geographic regions because it may shut their own terminals down. As it is, the troops entering Russia as part of August’s incursion suddenly found their terminals not working because of the geographic restrictions.

Significantly, they soon found workarounds to get the Starlinks online again — probably the same methods Russians have deployed. Interrupting the software update process and tweaking GPS settings can get it working in Russia, said a Ukrainian drone pilot operating there.

There are other viable methods to control illegal terminals, said Todd Harrison, a senior fellow and space security expert at the American Enterprise Institute. One possibility, he said, is for Kyiv and Washington to collect terminal IDs and provide them to SpaceX, with direction to deny access to anything else.

SpaceX knows which terminals have been provided to Ukraine.

They know which ones they've provided to Ukraine. Hardware like that has been and is still being donated through third parties daily.

Now, they could have Ukraine tell them which terminals are in use, including anything they've gotten from elsewhere, including stolen back from Russia, and use that to manage, but that would require the CEO of the company to actually want to help honestly.

Precisely. It’s not rocket science. And SpaceX is literally doing rocket science. This is a fully solvable problem. Eel on musk just doesn’t want to solve it.

For very obvious reasons, Ukraine may not want musk to have every single units position. Let alone groups that supplemented their own resources with Amazon.

Could starlink figure this out? Yes. But it would make everyone involved uncomfortable to know the theoretical has become documented and easily searchable.

Same problem

"Hey musk? Could you restore service to this town at 2 am on Wednesday? No reason but also please don't tell putin or trump."

You are wholly wrong.

https://www.usconstitution.net/vice-presidents-constitutional-powers/

For one, constitutionally they have several additional powers that you neglected to outline, not just the one you provided. This also assumes that we're talking about a president and vice-president who are hostile to each other and not actively working together, you know... how it originally was when #1 vote became president and #2 became vice-president, which hasn't been a thing in over 200 years now.

For two... https://youtube.com/watch?v=81gnQ4Xo9Wc&t=12m50s

Biden says: "She helped passed all the laws being employed now. She's a major player in everything we've done. Including passes of legislation which we were told we could never pass"

If she's so "powerless" then why is the President stating that she's been instrumental to passing all that legislation? You act like Biden wouldn't/doesn't listen to her. And if that is indeed what you're asserting, then there's no point in discussing anything further with you since the man himself said otherwise. Which does indeed include everything that he's assigned to the vice-president over the years. I'm a bit too lazy to pull up all the cases where he's said that himself... I'm sure we can agree that it's happened a few times though.

The fact that you want to make some assumption that she has no power simply because the constitution doesn't directly give her all that much in the form of power ignores the fact that Biden clearly relies on her quite heavily by his own admission. She has power. You're bullshitting me and everyone who reads your post.

Edit: Oh! and also... you stated that tie breaks never happen. That's funny because Kamala even exercised that power 33 times.

https://ballotpedia.org/Tie-breaking_votes_cast_by_Kamala_Harris_in_the_U.S._Senate

for something that "never happens" seems to have happened a lot. Nearly once a month for her whole term. So yes, you are wholly wrong on everything you stated outside of the tie break being one of her current powers.