Let’s start with the most important personal revelations and then move steadily toward things that matter.

 

Elon often goes into a unique version of frenzied-Elon what Elon’s ex-almost-wife and the mother of two x wee-Elons, The Artist formerly known as Mrs Elon (Grimes) calls “demon mode.”

The transformation appears to be a version of one of Elon’s as yet unlogged superpowers, wherein he gains the elemental power of being “highly productive.”

But, according to Forbes – who read an article in Insider, who watched a Twitter thing featuring Elon’s biographer, who somehow spent two years playing Gollum to Elon’s Frodo – Demon Mode can unfortunately also make Musky “dark” and act “with a real lack of empathy.”

The only possible conclusion I can draw is that somehow Elon has recovered the One Ring and – although he may intend to use it from a desire to do good and fix Twitter, prop up Tesla stock – it is likely that through Elon, it would wield a power too great and terrible to imagine, including pushing the US economy into its worst recession in at least a decade.

The bestselling biographer, Walter Isaacson,  “observed Musk’s day-to-day life for about two years”, saying Grimes came up with the whole “demon mode” thing.

She allegedly told the writer that when Elon shifts into Demon Mode he can be “unpleasant” to be around, but it’s how he “gets sh-t done.”

And now we know a little bit more about a side of Sauron, who let’s face it achieved a great deal however controversially, which a clearly woke Tolkien  conveniently omitted from his all too Marxist take on Middle Earth.
 

Also terribly important this week: Elon Vs The Zuck

 

Some karate expert posted this on Youtube, and then Lex Fridman (?) who’s also a podcaster shared pics on Twitter from another session, this time with our man.

“I did an impromptu training session with Elon Musk for a few hours yesterday ,” he explained before lavishing the Wielder of the One Ring with praise:

“I am extremely impressed with his strength, power and skill, on the feet and on the ground. It was epic.”


 

Actually important this week: Elon Vs China

After Russia invaded Ukraine, China watched as Elon Musk’s Starlink network of satellites enabled Ukraine’s military to access high-speed internet through most of the conflict.

Musk recently reclaimed the title of the world’s richest person thanks to Tesla shares surging this year.

But a spinoff and IPO of Starlink, the satellite-broadband unit of his private space business SpaceX, would not only make him substantially richer, it may end in a short-lived war between the People’s Republic of China and Elon Musk.

All the pieces are almost in place.

China’s ever-friendly neighbour Japan is testing the Starlink satellite internet service for its growing millitart with an eye to adopting the technology next fiscal year, the Yomiuri newspaper reported on Sunday, (citing unnamed government sources).

Japan’s Ministry of Defence already has access to communication satellites in geostationary orbit, but use of Starlink technology, operated by Musk’s SpaceX, would add a constellation of satellites in Low Earth Orbit.
 

Star Link: The Rise of Muskwalker

Countries around the world are seeking to build resilience against the risk of jamming of communications or attacks on satellites in the event of conflict.

Japan’s Self-Defense Forces have been testing Starlink since March with the system deployed in about 10 locations and in training, the newspaper said.

In January, venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya said Starlink would IPO in 2023 – the biggest IPO of 2023.

Starlink’s valuation “will be at least half of SpaceX’s current private worth,” Palihapitiya added.

Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal reported that SpaceX was seeking to boost its valuation to $150 billion by letting employees sell stock. (The company raised $750 million at a $137 billion valuation in January.)

A trust associated with Musk owns over 40-something % of SpaceX, the WSJ said at Christmas.

The developments  point to Starlink doing something similar for Taipei should a cross-strait disaster happen with China.

Elon’s going to want to plan this one out.

He has so much riding on in and with China that if he says yes once too often, Beijing might just have to eliminate the threat of being just too clever.

In a direct challenge to Musk’s civilian and military communications satellite-based Starlink internet services, China is developing its own “Guowang” (国网 guówǎng) which simply means “national network”.

But it’s far from national. It’s galactic. Imagine a veritable constellation of twitchy, cunning satellites bopping about in LEO sucking up and spitting out digital bytes in hooverish mouthfuls which I guess is being called broadband internet.

“In Ukraine, Starlink has demonstrated its relevance and utility in an active conflict situation,” Ian Christensen, a director at the space race watchdog organisation the Secure World Foundation, told The China Project.

“China has noticed and put a little bit more impetus behind trying to get the Guowang constellation really under development.”

Ukraine’s army relies on Musk’s Starlink internet — the monthly US$20 million cost paid for by the Pentagon. In March, US lawmakers discussed helping to bring Starlink to Taiwan.

As Taiwan faces Chinese cyberattacks, the satellite internet becomes a critical measure for greater security when compared with undersea cables and land-based relay towers vulnerable to attack.

If China invaded Taiwan, Tesla could be kicked out of China.

Musk could then move to make up for the loss of revenue with another Pentagon contract to do for Taiwan what Starlink did for Ukraine.

China’s thought a lot about that too.
 

Guowang: Taking over space, blowing up stuff

In May Chinese analysts published a paper suggesting that the PLA should find a way to counteract, and even destroy, Starlink.

Starlink’s simple and succesful application in the Ukraine conflict has also awoken in China’s leadership a classic case of tyrannical jealousy. They like it. They want one. And so there’s been a redoubling in the effort to roll out  China’s Guowang which reportedly includes a constellation of nearly 13,000 satellites in LEO able to provide internet… and who knows what else… to who knows who.

Guowang would  have military applications. Come on. Only a mad person would wrap the sub-space orbit in 13k metal boxes and not add a gun or two.

At the least it’d surely make comms for the People’s Liberation Army a little more impressive. Chinese military communications and infrastructure could probably benefit from getting a little more reliable and resilient during a conflict – although, let’s rememeber no-one really knows what the PLA looks like in a modern warfare.

The generals might be getting a little anxious about that themselves, which makes a pre-Taiwan test run a sensible plan, if not just a straight up invasion.

But such a string of pearls – the boldness of its concept and the hopefully successful application of its ambition – would have other advantages. Not least the prestige President Xi Jinping could use a cup or two of in what’s been a sleepy old 2023 for the first-time third-term President.

He’s overseen a lagging economy, a terrific spat with almost everyone that’s mates with the US and the worst – horrific really – youth unemployment in decades. One if five young Chinese can’t get a gig.

But imagine, Guowang could change the isolation of millions of China’s poorest. The rural forgotten. Improving internet access in China’s strung out rural areas could have some terrific knock-on effects. Aside from improving the daily grind of life for so many. Guowang could expand e-commerce, increase local economic activity benefit entrepreneurs, and boost the economy.

Then othe other hand there’s definite soft power advantages. You’d reckon a working constellation of networked satellites could bring all kinds of Chinese controlled internet-y goodness to the unaligned developing nations grateful for any help on that front.

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