We shot down four objects floating over U.S. airspace, but gave up looking for three. What were they exactly—and what is the government not telling us?
Apparently balloons floated over our fair land between the years 2016 and 2020. The Trump people say they were never told. Now that’s what I call command and control.
No, that's what's called a corrupt "intelligence" apparatus who thinks *they* should run the country rather than actual citizens via their elected officials.
Not so sure Biden is their 'friend' - perhaps they're 'corrupt' because the deep staters thought #45 was weird for having two high level Russian officials in the White House with only Russian media present..
..or when Trump was on bended knee to Putin publicly in Helsinki saying he believed Putin over his own intelligence agencies, and then in a closed meeting with the Russian grandmaster Donald goes in with only a translator. I think the rabid weasels in the CIA or the FBI got a little worried then. Does Donald belong to us? Or someone else?
So you admit there's a deep state that undercuts the will of the voters and you're one of those conspiracy theorists who actually thinks Putin was running things when Trump was the one who sent all those Javelins to Ukraine and escalated the situation to where we are today. You really need to get your story straight. Was he working for Putin or not? Because if he was, I doubt he would have (stupidly) armed Ukraine.
Enough of this crap. I read the Jeff Gerth series in the COlumbia Journalism Review. It reinforced Lee Smith and others meticulously researched work showing how the Russia hoax was perpetrated. Gaslighting still works for some, but it makes you look like a troll at this point.
Besides that, help me understand how a special counsel stocked with DOJ officials that despised the guy and 40 FBI agents to do their investigative work came up with nothing, not even a tangential charge.
Liked the guy or not, every American should be disgusted by what the DOJ/FBI did to so many people during their witch hunt.
It has always been corrupt. They were involved in JFK's assassination, five of the 'burglars' in Watergate were CIA(including Bernstein), and the 'Trump-Russia' collusion was an FBI/CIA op.
Trump unleashed American energy to help keep oil at $40/barrel which perfectly neutered Russia and Iran. For three years.
Putin is a bad hombre and our own government is worse. We promised to not expand eastward and then did. We armed Ukraine and then they attacked their own Russian citizens using Azov battalions. Ukraine is a money laundering scheme for our politicians - except Trump, buddy.
And people are saying that the ever senile Joe's admin lied about the balloon incursions during Trump's admin.
Think about it. If the Trump security people were never told then how did the ever senile Joe's people know about them. Face it somebody's lying. Seeing as the ever senile Joe always lies then.....
Well, according to a few commenters here, Biden's in bed with our intelligence agencies. I'd rather he be in bed with them than not. Trump was probably hated by the CIA and the FBI. Not so good for the country.
So you're just fine with the CIA and the FBI and all those other alphabet agencies running the country and our foreign policy? You do realize that they care even less about the welfare of the average American than your average politician does and they're even less accountable for the messes they make.
No, anyone the FBI and the CIA hates should be nominated for sainthood. They're definitely doing something right, and that would, as much as I'm ambivalent about him, include Trump.
I'm not fine with it. Just realistic. You're not wrong, Lillia. I respect your idealism.
Just to keep in mind though, the fact that there hasn't been an external terrorist attack on the US since 9/11 means the agencies we disparage (because I do too, at times) have been doing their job. Quietly.
While that seems a natural conclusion, the fact that they have been caught helping to "plan" some of the attacks they "foiled" (see Gretchen Whitmer) means I'm not so sure it's that they're skillful or that we're lucky or that the terrorists are just that stupid.
But thank you for respecting my "idealism." I haven't been called "idealistic" in a long time.
Well if Trumps security people including those the ever megalomaniac Trump fired, the ones he fired dislike Trump and said they were never told. If they are telling the truth, then how does the ever senile Joe's people know about them?
I have said all along the ever senile Joe and his Socialist pals in congress and the Dem/Soc party are more interested in the welfare of undocumented democrats than they are about our own citizens. Watch the video and tell me I am wrong:
Sorry but I’m not buying that China is behind every balloon flying in our skies. Wasn’t there a US-based balloon society that claimed they believe one of their balloons was downed by the $400k missile? This article is a bit too speculative and hysterical for my tastes.
You can't believe anything the Biden admin says. Just a couple of days ago his idiot VEEP said inflation was down, gas prices were down and groceries were down, all because of the wonderful things the administration is doing.. One commentator said she must be in an alternate reality.
When it comes to China I am even more skeptical because of the bribes the Biden crime family has taken. Only Democrat fanatics like R T or comprof would think that China will not use these bribes as leverage or that the bribes happened in the first place.
The ever senile Joe and his equally incompetent VEEP need to be fitted for wrap around jackets and put in a padded room.
I do remember Trump on a debate stage in the primaries seven years ago not understanding what the nuclear triad meant. So I understand your fear of an incompetent boob with his fingers to the codes..
Honestly Lee, would you trust Biden to go to the store for some milk and bread for you without screwing up the order, getting lost on the way back - or both? That this corrupt moron is the leader of the Free World is a very unfunny joke.
I take your point. But the octogenarian still has the power and support to fly anywhere he wants around the world (he doesn’t seem to like Ohio though..) - Putin? Who used to walk around shirtless and bare chested?
You'd prefer someone who has settled a fraud case for 25 million, had a charity they set up closed down for fraud and who put their daughter and son in law in positions of power, only to have a state (Saudi Arabia) with which they dealt sign a 4 billion dollar deal with them months after leaving the white house? Biden is both sharp (see the state of the union) and a straight shooter. And even better, he's actually working for the people of America. All of them.
But……Trump is not an argument. Try living in today’s world. You know, where Biden has been in control for the last two years and Trump is a memory. At this point, Biden owns the economy, defense, etc.
Bruce Miller, Here is the article, by Fox News no less: https://www.foxnews.com/us/illinois-hobby-club-fears-balloon-shot-down-usaf-report. I completely agree with JBuzz3, not every anomaly in the sky is from China. Further, questioning whether or not China is behind every balloon does not suggest that China is not malign. It is simple logic, there will be a whole bunch of junk in the sky: private balloons, weather balloons (from many countries), and actual baddies, spy balloons. This is just reality.
The article reads as if written by a first year journalism student, clearly excited by the story he thinks he’s uncovering and all the quotes he was able to get..
The truth is out there somewhere- and I think it might be boring.
And you're clearly excited that you get to show us how erudite you are by constantly criticizing. Do you have anything useful to add? Other than badly plagiarizing the X-Files tagline and suggesting the obvious, that you "think it might be boring."
I noticed that as well, but I think that he was talking about all the balloons currently up there, not necessarily just those that were shot down. And you're right that of those shot down, the only one anyone suspects for sure came from China was the one that took a nice long stroll across the country right in the beginning. The one in Alaska I heard came from some kind of hobby group.
I also find it telling that we don’t see much information forthcoming about the details of the spy equipment recovered from the Chinese balloon shot over SC. I am beginning to doubt it was a Chinese military surveillance balloon. I no longer believe anything the WH and the govt are telling us. For all we know, it could be a weather balloon, and they are simply inventing stories to cover their incompetence and to justify firing a $500K missile at it.
I agree with you. Adam Popescu is a creative writer and is 38. It was about 50 years ago that people in their 20s began to be described as Senior Writers. I was initially amused.
Other than the fact that the border is closed, does anyone writing for the Media know anything?
Also, is there no chance that our military doesn’t want China to know what they know, which means they can’t really let us all know exactly what they know?
The total cost of the balloon was apparently less than $100. Its payload totaled 16.4 grams and consisted of paper-thin solar cells driving a computer board with GPS receiver and a transmitter which occasionally - subject to sufficient sunlight - transmitted its location to a global amateur network of tracking stations.
It has been argued (I forget where) that this balloon security flap, or at least the way it was extended after the big Chinese balloon was downed, was deliberate distraction by the US government to draw attention away from the much more serious matter of Seymour Hersch's story in which he reports an informant's revelations that the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage was the work of the US government, without congressional approval, in cahoots with the UK and Norway - and with Germany surely knowing all this, probably before the bombs were detonated.
It was later revealed that the US military tracked the big Chinese balloon from the time it was launched from Hainan Island, which is not surprising or undesirable: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/02/14/china-spy-balloon-path-tracking-weather/ . "With propellers and a rudder, it has the capability to be maneuvered." Yet this was not made known when the balloon first became such a prominent news item - I mean, distraction. Why then didn't they shoot it down before it passed over Alaska on 28th January?
Isn’t it fascinating that Joey is all in on stomping out global warming yet is presiding over events like East Palestine and the blowing up of the pipeline which are adding huge amounts of carbon to the atmosphere. Why it’s almost like they are lying to us about their carbon commitments also.
Indeed. There are a few other things the US government (or whoever really controls them) are trying to distract attention from too. Firstly, that they led the global COVID-19 pandemic response by prioritizing profitable quasi-vaccines, despite them being untested and much less safe and effective than promised, when proper vitamin D3 supplementation would have quelled the pandemic and ensured that few people died: https://vitamindstopscovid.info/00-evi/ - especially with the growing number of inexpensive, safe, effective early treatments, which remain banned and/or disparaged to this day: https://c19early.org .
The mRNA and adenovirus vector gene therapy quasi-vaccines and the likewise expensive (profitable) and not very effective of safe monoclonal antibodies, Remdesivir, Molnupririvir etc. are part of the cluster of crimes against humanity which makes the pandemic response, if viewed as one, "the biggest crime against humanity since the Holocaust", as was stated by UK MP Andrew Tridgen. This is not an insult to those who died in the Holocaust, or their ethnic groups. He didn't state that the crime was of the same nature. The UN definition of "crime against humanity" does not require that there be specific intent. I compared the death tolls: https://nutritionmatters.substack.com/p/the-covid-19-pandemic-response-killed .
Probably the most pressing spear of potential popular attention they are attempting to distract from is the evidence, such as presented by PhD epidemiologist Andrew Huff and https://usrtk.org/category/covid-19-origins/, that the US government funded gain of function research in the University of North Carolina and the Wuhan Institute of Virology which lead to the creation of a human-adapted SARS-like virus which escaped confinement in mid- to late-2019 as what we now know as SARS-CoV-2. Even without a knowledge of the biochemistry we can reliably determine this to be the case, since there is a complete lack of evidence for a zoonotic origin of this virus, while this was rapidly found and fully documented for SARS, which really did originate from zoonotic transfer . Furthermore, the logic of Sherlock Holmes' "dog which does not bark" sleuthing (https://brieflywriting.com/2012/07/25/the-dog-that-didnt-bark-what-we-can-learn-from-sir-arthur-conan-doyle-about-using-the-absence-of-expected-facts/) applies to this supposed mystery of the origins of COVID-19, with Check-Mate! force and clarity: Both the Chinese and the US governments are hiding information about this research and doing nothing to seriously pursue the numerous lines of evidence for them both being responsible for engineering the virus.
I was just wondering if the balloon was flying over the Ukraine, would he have taken 6 days to shoot it down? Their airspace and borders are sacrosanct.
I hear you. Sometimes it's slow. I'll proofread something I've written and hit "Post" then see that what got posted has significantly different words. Very maddening.
Your theory holds a lot of water as well. We have come to the point that we view anything, anything... coming from the Biden administration with cynicism and suspicion. I know a lot of us view anything that comes from the government as suspect; regardless of what party holds the WH, and we are justified. Nonetheless, at this point in my life (retirement age) it makes me sick and angry that we have been forced to this position. We are/were the most exceptional country on earth; some bright shining star for the rest of the world. And look at us today.
The American Peoples regime has been eroded and replaced by a Hostile Regime that wants us to be weak, stupid, and divided, for much easier enslavement. Its not the american government its a globalist agenda. We’re just the biggest battleground
I agree with you. Some of the biggest clues that this Admin is aiming for the annihilation of Capitalism and Nationalism in order to be sucked into the WEF/Klaus Schwab ‘Great Reset’ is Biden’s oft repeated slogan to Build Back Better and to give power over America’s public health to the World Health Organization. They did such a bang-up job last time.
I find it hard to believe that 194 countries, including mine, Canada, are seriously considering handing total decision making control over us in the event of another PLANdemic to the idiot Tedros of the WHO. All orders regarding vaccine mandates, lockdowns, quarantines, masks, travel restrictions through vaccine passports and Digital ID’s and any other little tool they devise will be commanded by the WHO. The WHO is working with American Constitutional lawyers right now to ensure a ‘go-around clause’ that takes the Senate rule of 65 votes to approve an international treaty out of play. Like they did with the Iran deal under Obama. This deal with the WHO is the first move to One Word Government. I do not want an un-elected body of twits having anything to do with my personal healthcare and I believe no-one else does, either. They are diverting our attention with fluff news and spy balloons. This move to the WHO is dangerous and it must be stopped.
You're absolutely right; and THIS particular Administration is ALL IN for this crap. We shall see what happens in the 24 election. Assuming it isn't stolen as well. Take care.
"Retired U.S. Admiral James Stavridis, a former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, added: “In China, there is a very close nexus between commercial companies at every level and the People’s Liberation Army.”
No kidding, Admiral obvious. Now get a clue that China isn't like us and doesn't like us. Our entire establishment has been in the tank for China for years. We have a president whose son was in the pocket of these totalitarian gangsters and who likely benefitted from the cash and riches they showered on Hunter. China runs concentration camps. They created and spread the pandemic. And very few in our government raised a peep of objection. Why? Confucius Institutes, massive investments and business deals, hordes of Chinese students in our universities, and "professors" gobbling up research ideas. Plus spying on their citizens and ours and using tik tokk to surveille and influence our children. So, no, the balloons are not benign. Nothing the Chinese communist party mafia does is benign. It's long past time to stop pretending otherwise and to purge our government and civic life of those who do their bidding. Including the senile imbecile who sullies the Oval Office, along with his felonious family.
I do not trust our government and want our security state dismantled. The threat from these balloons is minuscule compared to the number of human assets (spies) the Chinese have infiltrated into our academic and corporate hierarchies.
But, but, but.......didn't the 51 patriots who worked for the security state bravely warn us that the laptop was Russian disinformation and save us from that Orange ogre?
Yes, I saw that when it came out. Carefully lawyered up to suggest that the laptop was a Russian plant but not actually say it was. So when the lie was finally exposed they could claim they never actually said it was a Russian false flag. So, naturally the DNC lapdogs in the press took the bait and Biden made the claim in the debate. Just one more piece of evidence in the case for dismantling our security state and starting over with patriotic Americans who respect our Constitution. These people are, to use Kevin's favorite word, patent "scumbags."
Am I reading this wrong or is this article citing someone who worked for Clapper as a source? I do not have an opinion on the facts as they are forever gone, but citing anyone connected to this habitual liar is not the stuff that generates credibility.
How did we get to a point where absorbing every news piece feels like reading tea leaves? You really do have to run the citations through an analysis and bias scan to get a read on their connections. Then you have to do the same with the "evidence" and its presentation. Finally, encapsulate the gist of the article in directionality. So, trusting the military viewpoints used to be pretty straightforward, men of action cut through the bullsh!t and told it like they saw it; but now we have General Milley and Darth Vader Austin to destroy that credibility. Then we have the leaks and distortions and spin put out by the agencies and authorities to cloud what we know about the evidence with the sole takeaway being that what we see doesn't match what we hear. My "spidey-senses" came awake when the last opinion expressed was that the vital exercise remains unity, and that we stick to a meta-narrative; otherwise, the Chi-coms and Russkies will divide us and we will fall into their evil trap. Trust Jake Sullivan or Winkin, Blinkin and Nod to unify us and guide us through the current world tensions safely? Sorry.
Well said Willie. The news is not the news. It’s a distraction. While “they” distract us with the shinning light on the right side of the stage, “they” are doing something else on the left side of the stage.
Then, when the fizzle stiles down, they shine the light on the left side of the stage (and the whole process starts again).
We “the general public” have to figure out the “truth” before the light is shining.
No mention of fact that the first balloon was seen by civilians on the ground and reported to the media. Had the balloon not been seen, would the government still have shot it down?
I think this is the worst article I've ever seen in FP. First of all, the author essentially assumes - without evidence - that the other three balloons were Chinese spy balloons. That's possible, but it's not what we're being told, and there's no evidence it's true (and the author cites none). I don't know where these balloons came from and neither does the author. Then, after stealing that base and building a house of cards on it, he accuses the American public of hysteria. In fact, the response was hilarity, not hysteria. Both start with "h" but they do not mean the same thing.
This piece reads like he started with a conclusion and worked backward, rather than starting with the facts and evidence we have and working forward. Not what I subscribe to the FP for. I can get garbage like that from CNN.
The "hysteria" mentioned in the article was confined to the political class and media talking heads. Everybody else either yawned or laughed or wondered why now?
Yeah the Twitter Files were showing violations of our First Amendment rights and direct evidence that the Democrat security state is manipulating elections, and then suddenly "OH LOOK A BALLOON"
My gut has the government “calling off the search” for the three objects so when it does find them, it can stay silent. There is no expectation of more to the story.
China is a big problem. This is the very first time capitalism has been mixed in with Communism. All the other times, Communism failed because the despots didn’t have the capital to carry out their mission. China does and has patience. Xi is a monster. The human rights violations (Uyghurs and Tibet) alone should bar China from International governing organizations.
I think the Free Press has, sadly, been infiltrated by the US "intelligence" community, just like the mainstream "press"....
This article is amazing: the writer admits at the outset that we know nothing definite about the nature, purpose, OR ORIGIN of these 3 airborne objects -- but then immediately embarks on a baseless quest to convince us that they all must have been Chinese, and that their purpose was therefore obviously nefarious -- because, after all, China employs an evil strategy of "(using) confrontation to extract cooperation”.
Gee... that sounds like precisely the sort of thing that another "Great Power" nation has a long track record of doing to other sovereign states all over the globe... Who am I thinking of...?
IKR? I'm not a fan of the Chinese Communist Party, but I am concerned about all the anti-Chinese propaganda emerging and what it portends. Seems like they are already trying to manufacture consent for the next war.
Worst story I’ve read on the free press. This is the first story that sounds like it was written by government propagandists. Interviews with FORMER pilots who know all so much about the balloons, what we knew, why we did it, really? The simple answer can’t possibly be true. They blew the response to ballon 1 then overreacted on all the rest. This story sounds a lot like 51 former national security experts say…… (and if I ever hear former security experts say anything other than we have been wrong since 2001 I’m not believing them)
What worries me is that these guys panicked and needed a headline to show how tough they are and start shooting at things because they could. In Afghanistan they wiped out an innocent family after the airport bombing just for a headline. What happens if we do this with Russia or China ?
The Biden by the people for the people of the people government lies to us every day in every way.
A few kernels of doubt? Try a whole bowl popped.
Apparently balloons floated over our fair land between the years 2016 and 2020. The Trump people say they were never told. Now that’s what I call command and control.
Not so reassuring..
No, that's what's called a corrupt "intelligence" apparatus who thinks *they* should run the country rather than actual citizens via their elected officials.
Like now?
Wouldn’t the intelligence establishment still be ‘corrupt’? Or was it corrupt only during Trump’s time..
No, it's always corrupt. It's just that Biden is their "friend."
Not so sure Biden is their 'friend' - perhaps they're 'corrupt' because the deep staters thought #45 was weird for having two high level Russian officials in the White House with only Russian media present..
..or when Trump was on bended knee to Putin publicly in Helsinki saying he believed Putin over his own intelligence agencies, and then in a closed meeting with the Russian grandmaster Donald goes in with only a translator. I think the rabid weasels in the CIA or the FBI got a little worried then. Does Donald belong to us? Or someone else?
I wonder where her notes are now..
So you admit there's a deep state that undercuts the will of the voters and you're one of those conspiracy theorists who actually thinks Putin was running things when Trump was the one who sent all those Javelins to Ukraine and escalated the situation to where we are today. You really need to get your story straight. Was he working for Putin or not? Because if he was, I doubt he would have (stupidly) armed Ukraine.
Enough of this crap. I read the Jeff Gerth series in the COlumbia Journalism Review. It reinforced Lee Smith and others meticulously researched work showing how the Russia hoax was perpetrated. Gaslighting still works for some, but it makes you look like a troll at this point.
Here, I even give you the link, https://www.cjr.org/special_report/trumped-up-press-versus-president-part-1.php.
Besides that, help me understand how a special counsel stocked with DOJ officials that despised the guy and 40 FBI agents to do their investigative work came up with nothing, not even a tangential charge.
Liked the guy or not, every American should be disgusted by what the DOJ/FBI did to so many people during their witch hunt.
It has always been corrupt. They were involved in JFK's assassination, five of the 'burglars' in Watergate were CIA(including Bernstein), and the 'Trump-Russia' collusion was an FBI/CIA op.
Trump unleashed American energy to help keep oil at $40/barrel which perfectly neutered Russia and Iran. For three years.
Putin is a bad hombre and our own government is worse. We promised to not expand eastward and then did. We armed Ukraine and then they attacked their own Russian citizens using Azov battalions. Ukraine is a money laundering scheme for our politicians - except Trump, buddy.
Lillia - Beautiful name.
And people are saying that the ever senile Joe's admin lied about the balloon incursions during Trump's admin.
Think about it. If the Trump security people were never told then how did the ever senile Joe's people know about them. Face it somebody's lying. Seeing as the ever senile Joe always lies then.....
Well, according to a few commenters here, Biden's in bed with our intelligence agencies. I'd rather he be in bed with them than not. Trump was probably hated by the CIA and the FBI. Not so good for the country.
So you're just fine with the CIA and the FBI and all those other alphabet agencies running the country and our foreign policy? You do realize that they care even less about the welfare of the average American than your average politician does and they're even less accountable for the messes they make.
No, anyone the FBI and the CIA hates should be nominated for sainthood. They're definitely doing something right, and that would, as much as I'm ambivalent about him, include Trump.
I'm not fine with it. Just realistic. You're not wrong, Lillia. I respect your idealism.
Just to keep in mind though, the fact that there hasn't been an external terrorist attack on the US since 9/11 means the agencies we disparage (because I do too, at times) have been doing their job. Quietly.
While that seems a natural conclusion, the fact that they have been caught helping to "plan" some of the attacks they "foiled" (see Gretchen Whitmer) means I'm not so sure it's that they're skillful or that we're lucky or that the terrorists are just that stupid.
But thank you for respecting my "idealism." I haven't been called "idealistic" in a long time.
Well if Trumps security people including those the ever megalomaniac Trump fired, the ones he fired dislike Trump and said they were never told. If they are telling the truth, then how does the ever senile Joe's people know about them?
If Joe knows as much as you think, being so old and senile (of which I agree), then we're in trouble..
I have said all along the ever senile Joe and his Socialist pals in congress and the Dem/Soc party are more interested in the welfare of undocumented democrats than they are about our own citizens. Watch the video and tell me I am wrong:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/you-re-not-gonna-gaslight-me-famed-activist-erin-brockovich-blasts-biden-s-nothing-s-wrong-response-to-east-palestine-disaster/ar-AA17W2Zz?ocid=winp1taskbar&cvid=22ce9798976b4f128f48f510b0c94804&ei=21
Sorry but I’m not buying that China is behind every balloon flying in our skies. Wasn’t there a US-based balloon society that claimed they believe one of their balloons was downed by the $400k missile? This article is a bit too speculative and hysterical for my tastes.
I don't recall the article suggesting that China was behind every balloon flying in our skies. Are you suggesting that China is not malign?
You can't believe anything the Biden admin says. Just a couple of days ago his idiot VEEP said inflation was down, gas prices were down and groceries were down, all because of the wonderful things the administration is doing.. One commentator said she must be in an alternate reality.
When it comes to China I am even more skeptical because of the bribes the Biden crime family has taken. Only Democrat fanatics like R T or comprof would think that China will not use these bribes as leverage or that the bribes happened in the first place.
The ever senile Joe and his equally incompetent VEEP need to be fitted for wrap around jackets and put in a padded room.
This has to scare sane people but make Dems proud they elected an incompetent boob who has access to the nuke codes.:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11791801/Biden-struggles-explain-visited-East-Palestine-devastating-train-derailment.html
It scares me.
I do remember Trump on a debate stage in the primaries seven years ago not understanding what the nuclear triad meant. So I understand your fear of an incompetent boob with his fingers to the codes..
Lee Morris
Not knowing where you were yesterday or who you spoke to is a little more concerning than not knowing the technical term Nuclear Triad.
Sure about that?
I have trouble knowing where the hell I was yesterday..or who I spoke to..and I would still trust myself more than Donald with that suitcase..
Honestly Lee, would you trust Biden to go to the store for some milk and bread for you without screwing up the order, getting lost on the way back - or both? That this corrupt moron is the leader of the Free World is a very unfunny joke.
Why I love February.
________________________________________
I love February because it contains two of my favorite annual events:
Groundhog Day, and the State of the Union Address.
One involves a meaningless ritual in which we look to a notoriously unreliable mammal for prognostication with no basis in reality.
The other involves a groundhog.
This reminds me of the Bill Clinton joke:
What is the difference between Bill Clinton and a catfish?
One is a low life, slimy, bottom feeder.
The other is a catfish.
I take your point. But the octogenarian still has the power and support to fly anywhere he wants around the world (he doesn’t seem to like Ohio though..) - Putin? Who used to walk around shirtless and bare chested?
Don’t think so..
You'd prefer someone who has settled a fraud case for 25 million, had a charity they set up closed down for fraud and who put their daughter and son in law in positions of power, only to have a state (Saudi Arabia) with which they dealt sign a 4 billion dollar deal with them months after leaving the white house? Biden is both sharp (see the state of the union) and a straight shooter. And even better, he's actually working for the people of America. All of them.
But……Trump is not an argument. Try living in today’s world. You know, where Biden has been in control for the last two years and Trump is a memory. At this point, Biden owns the economy, defense, etc.
But Trump can be used as an example when Biden is accused of not being fit enough to know the nuclear codes..
Bruce Miller, Here is the article, by Fox News no less: https://www.foxnews.com/us/illinois-hobby-club-fears-balloon-shot-down-usaf-report. I completely agree with JBuzz3, not every anomaly in the sky is from China. Further, questioning whether or not China is behind every balloon does not suggest that China is not malign. It is simple logic, there will be a whole bunch of junk in the sky: private balloons, weather balloons (from many countries), and actual baddies, spy balloons. This is just reality.
Not at all, wtf.
The article reads as if written by a first year journalism student, clearly excited by the story he thinks he’s uncovering and all the quotes he was able to get..
The truth is out there somewhere- and I think it might be boring.
And you're clearly excited that you get to show us how erudite you are by constantly criticizing. Do you have anything useful to add? Other than badly plagiarizing the X-Files tagline and suggesting the obvious, that you "think it might be boring."
I consider that a compliment, Lillia. You're the first to comment on my apparent erudition here. You're pretty good too..
I noticed that as well, but I think that he was talking about all the balloons currently up there, not necessarily just those that were shot down. And you're right that of those shot down, the only one anyone suspects for sure came from China was the one that took a nice long stroll across the country right in the beginning. The one in Alaska I heard came from some kind of hobby group.
I also find it telling that we don’t see much information forthcoming about the details of the spy equipment recovered from the Chinese balloon shot over SC. I am beginning to doubt it was a Chinese military surveillance balloon. I no longer believe anything the WH and the govt are telling us. For all we know, it could be a weather balloon, and they are simply inventing stories to cover their incompetence and to justify firing a $500K missile at it.
JBuzz3
I agree with you. Adam Popescu is a creative writer and is 38. It was about 50 years ago that people in their 20s began to be described as Senior Writers. I was initially amused.
Other than the fact that the border is closed, does anyone writing for the Media know anything?
Also, is there no chance that our military doesn’t want China to know what they know, which means they can’t really let us all know exactly what they know?
The smaller unidentified flying object shot down by an F-22 armed with a sidewinder missile was almost certainly a small mylar balloon launched by that that august recreational institution, the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade: https://www.npr.org/2023/02/18/1158048921/pico-balloon-k9yo and https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11764757/White-House-admits-three-shot-UFOs-STAY-mystery-debris-never-recovered.html . A few days later, the military gave up the search for the remains of this due to the vast area to be searched being subject to snowfall.
The total cost of the balloon was apparently less than $100. Its payload totaled 16.4 grams and consisted of paper-thin solar cells driving a computer board with GPS receiver and a transmitter which occasionally - subject to sufficient sunlight - transmitted its location to a global amateur network of tracking stations.
It has been argued (I forget where) that this balloon security flap, or at least the way it was extended after the big Chinese balloon was downed, was deliberate distraction by the US government to draw attention away from the much more serious matter of Seymour Hersch's story in which he reports an informant's revelations that the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage was the work of the US government, without congressional approval, in cahoots with the UK and Norway - and with Germany surely knowing all this, probably before the bombs were detonated.
It was later revealed that the US military tracked the big Chinese balloon from the time it was launched from Hainan Island, which is not surprising or undesirable: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/02/14/china-spy-balloon-path-tracking-weather/ . "With propellers and a rudder, it has the capability to be maneuvered." Yet this was not made known when the balloon first became such a prominent news item - I mean, distraction. Why then didn't they shoot it down before it passed over Alaska on 28th January?
Isn’t it fascinating that Joey is all in on stomping out global warming yet is presiding over events like East Palestine and the blowing up of the pipeline which are adding huge amounts of carbon to the atmosphere. Why it’s almost like they are lying to us about their carbon commitments also.
Indeed. There are a few other things the US government (or whoever really controls them) are trying to distract attention from too. Firstly, that they led the global COVID-19 pandemic response by prioritizing profitable quasi-vaccines, despite them being untested and much less safe and effective than promised, when proper vitamin D3 supplementation would have quelled the pandemic and ensured that few people died: https://vitamindstopscovid.info/00-evi/ - especially with the growing number of inexpensive, safe, effective early treatments, which remain banned and/or disparaged to this day: https://c19early.org .
The mRNA and adenovirus vector gene therapy quasi-vaccines and the likewise expensive (profitable) and not very effective of safe monoclonal antibodies, Remdesivir, Molnupririvir etc. are part of the cluster of crimes against humanity which makes the pandemic response, if viewed as one, "the biggest crime against humanity since the Holocaust", as was stated by UK MP Andrew Tridgen. This is not an insult to those who died in the Holocaust, or their ethnic groups. He didn't state that the crime was of the same nature. The UN definition of "crime against humanity" does not require that there be specific intent. I compared the death tolls: https://nutritionmatters.substack.com/p/the-covid-19-pandemic-response-killed .
Probably the most pressing spear of potential popular attention they are attempting to distract from is the evidence, such as presented by PhD epidemiologist Andrew Huff and https://usrtk.org/category/covid-19-origins/, that the US government funded gain of function research in the University of North Carolina and the Wuhan Institute of Virology which lead to the creation of a human-adapted SARS-like virus which escaped confinement in mid- to late-2019 as what we now know as SARS-CoV-2. Even without a knowledge of the biochemistry we can reliably determine this to be the case, since there is a complete lack of evidence for a zoonotic origin of this virus, while this was rapidly found and fully documented for SARS, which really did originate from zoonotic transfer . Furthermore, the logic of Sherlock Holmes' "dog which does not bark" sleuthing (https://brieflywriting.com/2012/07/25/the-dog-that-didnt-bark-what-we-can-learn-from-sir-arthur-conan-doyle-about-using-the-absence-of-expected-facts/) applies to this supposed mystery of the origins of COVID-19, with Check-Mate! force and clarity: Both the Chinese and the US governments are hiding information about this research and doing nothing to seriously pursue the numerous lines of evidence for them both being responsible for engineering the virus.
Add off-shore wind farm killing off the whales.
You’re referring to the flying whales I assume
Almost?
🤪😜🤪😜
I was just wondering if the balloon was flying over the Ukraine, would he have taken 6 days to shoot it down? Their airspace and borders are sacrosanct.
Great point. Nordstrom story much more important, and completely ignored.
You mean Nord Stream. You had me worried - I thought I was losing Nordstrom...
Darn autocorrect
I hear you. Sometimes it's slow. I'll proofread something I've written and hit "Post" then see that what got posted has significantly different words. Very maddening.
Just giving you a hard time. No worries. Everyone knew what you meant.
This one wasn't my typo (lucked out - Madjack was the lucky wiener this time). I was trying to come up with something funny to say also but failed.
As I’ve been saying for weeks - it’s all Kabuki Theater.
Great analogy.
Your theory holds a lot of water as well. We have come to the point that we view anything, anything... coming from the Biden administration with cynicism and suspicion. I know a lot of us view anything that comes from the government as suspect; regardless of what party holds the WH, and we are justified. Nonetheless, at this point in my life (retirement age) it makes me sick and angry that we have been forced to this position. We are/were the most exceptional country on earth; some bright shining star for the rest of the world. And look at us today.
The American Peoples regime has been eroded and replaced by a Hostile Regime that wants us to be weak, stupid, and divided, for much easier enslavement. Its not the american government its a globalist agenda. We’re just the biggest battleground
I agree with you. Some of the biggest clues that this Admin is aiming for the annihilation of Capitalism and Nationalism in order to be sucked into the WEF/Klaus Schwab ‘Great Reset’ is Biden’s oft repeated slogan to Build Back Better and to give power over America’s public health to the World Health Organization. They did such a bang-up job last time.
I find it hard to believe that 194 countries, including mine, Canada, are seriously considering handing total decision making control over us in the event of another PLANdemic to the idiot Tedros of the WHO. All orders regarding vaccine mandates, lockdowns, quarantines, masks, travel restrictions through vaccine passports and Digital ID’s and any other little tool they devise will be commanded by the WHO. The WHO is working with American Constitutional lawyers right now to ensure a ‘go-around clause’ that takes the Senate rule of 65 votes to approve an international treaty out of play. Like they did with the Iran deal under Obama. This deal with the WHO is the first move to One Word Government. I do not want an un-elected body of twits having anything to do with my personal healthcare and I believe no-one else does, either. They are diverting our attention with fluff news and spy balloons. This move to the WHO is dangerous and it must be stopped.
You're over the target my Friend. The thing is, we don't have to play. The push back will be horrendous.
...mean One WORLD Government.
You're absolutely right; and THIS particular Administration is ALL IN for this crap. We shall see what happens in the 24 election. Assuming it isn't stolen as well. Take care.
Does not generate confidence does it?
No it doesn't. I have a lot of years to look back upon and it hurts to watch this. But I am hopeful; and I pray and I vote. Take care.
Good comment. Agreed. The smaller "car sized" objects were not consistent with Chinese balloons that have been reported on.
"Retired U.S. Admiral James Stavridis, a former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, added: “In China, there is a very close nexus between commercial companies at every level and the People’s Liberation Army.”
No kidding, Admiral obvious. Now get a clue that China isn't like us and doesn't like us. Our entire establishment has been in the tank for China for years. We have a president whose son was in the pocket of these totalitarian gangsters and who likely benefitted from the cash and riches they showered on Hunter. China runs concentration camps. They created and spread the pandemic. And very few in our government raised a peep of objection. Why? Confucius Institutes, massive investments and business deals, hordes of Chinese students in our universities, and "professors" gobbling up research ideas. Plus spying on their citizens and ours and using tik tokk to surveille and influence our children. So, no, the balloons are not benign. Nothing the Chinese communist party mafia does is benign. It's long past time to stop pretending otherwise and to purge our government and civic life of those who do their bidding. Including the senile imbecile who sullies the Oval Office, along with his felonious family.
I do not trust our government and want our security state dismantled. The threat from these balloons is minuscule compared to the number of human assets (spies) the Chinese have infiltrated into our academic and corporate hierarchies.
But, but, but.......didn't the 51 patriots who worked for the security state bravely warn us that the laptop was Russian disinformation and save us from that Orange ogre?
And they stole the election, don't forget !!
No. One claims there was a disclaimer in the last paragraph so we are idiots for understanding they said it WAS Russian disinformation.
Yes, I saw that when it came out. Carefully lawyered up to suggest that the laptop was a Russian plant but not actually say it was. So when the lie was finally exposed they could claim they never actually said it was a Russian false flag. So, naturally the DNC lapdogs in the press took the bait and Biden made the claim in the debate. Just one more piece of evidence in the case for dismantling our security state and starting over with patriotic Americans who respect our Constitution. These people are, to use Kevin's favorite word, patent "scumbags."
Agreed.
Am I reading this wrong or is this article citing someone who worked for Clapper as a source? I do not have an opinion on the facts as they are forever gone, but citing anyone connected to this habitual liar is not the stuff that generates credibility.
There’s no need for the government to tell us the truth; everything is classified, how convenient.
How did we get to a point where absorbing every news piece feels like reading tea leaves? You really do have to run the citations through an analysis and bias scan to get a read on their connections. Then you have to do the same with the "evidence" and its presentation. Finally, encapsulate the gist of the article in directionality. So, trusting the military viewpoints used to be pretty straightforward, men of action cut through the bullsh!t and told it like they saw it; but now we have General Milley and Darth Vader Austin to destroy that credibility. Then we have the leaks and distortions and spin put out by the agencies and authorities to cloud what we know about the evidence with the sole takeaway being that what we see doesn't match what we hear. My "spidey-senses" came awake when the last opinion expressed was that the vital exercise remains unity, and that we stick to a meta-narrative; otherwise, the Chi-coms and Russkies will divide us and we will fall into their evil trap. Trust Jake Sullivan or Winkin, Blinkin and Nod to unify us and guide us through the current world tensions safely? Sorry.
Well said Willie. The news is not the news. It’s a distraction. While “they” distract us with the shinning light on the right side of the stage, “they” are doing something else on the left side of the stage.
Then, when the fizzle stiles down, they shine the light on the left side of the stage (and the whole process starts again).
We “the general public” have to figure out the “truth” before the light is shining.
It’s a complete mind F@$K game.
Kudos to you for knowing how to analyze the BS and doing so.
No mention of fact that the first balloon was seen by civilians on the ground and reported to the media. Had the balloon not been seen, would the government still have shot it down?
I think this is the worst article I've ever seen in FP. First of all, the author essentially assumes - without evidence - that the other three balloons were Chinese spy balloons. That's possible, but it's not what we're being told, and there's no evidence it's true (and the author cites none). I don't know where these balloons came from and neither does the author. Then, after stealing that base and building a house of cards on it, he accuses the American public of hysteria. In fact, the response was hilarity, not hysteria. Both start with "h" but they do not mean the same thing.
This piece reads like he started with a conclusion and worked backward, rather than starting with the facts and evidence we have and working forward. Not what I subscribe to the FP for. I can get garbage like that from CNN.
The "hysteria" mentioned in the article was confined to the political class and media talking heads. Everybody else either yawned or laughed or wondered why now?
Yeah the Twitter Files were showing violations of our First Amendment rights and direct evidence that the Democrat security state is manipulating elections, and then suddenly "OH LOOK A BALLOON"
Take that fucking hat off.
My gut has the government “calling off the search” for the three objects so when it does find them, it can stay silent. There is no expectation of more to the story.
China is a big problem. This is the very first time capitalism has been mixed in with Communism. All the other times, Communism failed because the despots didn’t have the capital to carry out their mission. China does and has patience. Xi is a monster. The human rights violations (Uyghurs and Tibet) alone should bar China from International governing organizations.
I think the Free Press has, sadly, been infiltrated by the US "intelligence" community, just like the mainstream "press"....
This article is amazing: the writer admits at the outset that we know nothing definite about the nature, purpose, OR ORIGIN of these 3 airborne objects -- but then immediately embarks on a baseless quest to convince us that they all must have been Chinese, and that their purpose was therefore obviously nefarious -- because, after all, China employs an evil strategy of "(using) confrontation to extract cooperation”.
Gee... that sounds like precisely the sort of thing that another "Great Power" nation has a long track record of doing to other sovereign states all over the globe... Who am I thinking of...?
No the point is we don’t know and our government certainly isn’t telling us.
IKR? I'm not a fan of the Chinese Communist Party, but I am concerned about all the anti-Chinese propaganda emerging and what it portends. Seems like they are already trying to manufacture consent for the next war.
Worst story I’ve read on the free press. This is the first story that sounds like it was written by government propagandists. Interviews with FORMER pilots who know all so much about the balloons, what we knew, why we did it, really? The simple answer can’t possibly be true. They blew the response to ballon 1 then overreacted on all the rest. This story sounds a lot like 51 former national security experts say…… (and if I ever hear former security experts say anything other than we have been wrong since 2001 I’m not believing them)
What worries me is that these guys panicked and needed a headline to show how tough they are and start shooting at things because they could. In Afghanistan they wiped out an innocent family after the airport bombing just for a headline. What happens if we do this with Russia or China ?
Not up the the standard I expect from The Free Press.
This balloon fiasco was all a ruse to divert the real story - the bombing of that pipeline. It's amazing no one is talking about this.
Spot on.