Aha! The test question was not... how long would it take a bullet to descend to the ground... it was -- how many patriots wearing armament lapel pins would it take to figure this out?
Trick question!
This is why I did so well on the SAT's lo those many years ago!
The Chinese now know that a balloon released into the jet stream over the Aleutians is sufficient to cause the dominant political party in America to lose its mind and descend into an irrational frenzy of self-devouring madness.
This was indeed a trial balloon, testing whether America has the capacity to formulate and execute rational action in response to the planned challenges (Taiwan, the Phillipines, and the Western and Southern Pacific).
Forget about the bus-sized electronics payload. The balloon has already fulfilled its intelligence gathering mission.
Hey Charlie, TFG is so stupid, always good for a laugh or two. Seems to me that the term 'fake disinformation' is a double negative. Am I right in assuming the two.words cancel one anorher?
If the U.S. agencies were able to monitor transmissions from the balloon, it might make sense to wait until it crosses the whole country. Perhaps they can examine the hardware and determine how the secret codes work. It is good to have a large number of sample transmissions.
Most of time it was not flying over anything secret, so there was no benefit to the Chinese. I have read that when it did pass over secret locations, the U.S. was able to jam the signal.
It seems like an inept way to conduct surveillance compared to satellite recon. However, experts on Japanese national news (NHK) say there are some advantages to putting the sensors closer to the ground.
They wanted to be able to gather info from the balloon after it was shot down, as well as not harming anyone in the process. I think they dealt with it much better than stoopnagle administration did. He didn't do, or possibly didn't know anything about anything about it.
The Damon Linker quote nailed it, sadly. So many knee-jerk bad-faith performative partisan takes on the balloon, as with just about everything else. Yeah, "both sides" are know to spin things a bit to make the other side look bad, but the GOP's cynical rote over-the-top nonsense attacks on Biden are nauseating.
As with everything else, they are playing to the MAGA and MAGA-adjacent crowd. Bashing Biden is very good for business, country be damned. And if you're not relentlessly bashing Biden, your primary opponent will be.
Once again the Right has been able to get the media to blow a story up all out of proportion. There was enough hot air to launch an entire fleet of balloons.
My thought on reading the hysterical response from Republicans was that they made themselves look ridiculous. In fact, in the weeks since they took control of the House, they have done nothing else. Then again, anyone who voted for MTG or Gosar et. al. has different standards than I do.
Excellent pod with Elie Honig. I share his views about wimpy AG Garland. How depressing that we have a country full of cowardly men. I guess a woman will have to come to the rescue. We're counting on you, Fani Willis.
So explain to me like I'm five; why is the GOP demanding Biden's resignation and/or impeachment because they think he's weak on China? Did they ever have a problem when Trump was "in love"?
Regarding the Chinese ballon, if it was a research ballon gone awry, why didn't the Chinese give us a heads up. Hey guys! Something got away from us we mean no harm!
Stephen King rocks and called McCarthy exactly what the new
Speaker is
Aha! The test question was not... how long would it take a bullet to descend to the ground... it was -- how many patriots wearing armament lapel pins would it take to figure this out?
Trick question!
This is why I did so well on the SAT's lo those many years ago!
The Chinese now know that a balloon released into the jet stream over the Aleutians is sufficient to cause the dominant political party in America to lose its mind and descend into an irrational frenzy of self-devouring madness.
This was indeed a trial balloon, testing whether America has the capacity to formulate and execute rational action in response to the planned challenges (Taiwan, the Phillipines, and the Western and Southern Pacific).
Forget about the bus-sized electronics payload. The balloon has already fulfilled its intelligence gathering mission.
Hey Charlie, TFG is so stupid, always good for a laugh or two. Seems to me that the term 'fake disinformation' is a double negative. Am I right in assuming the two.words cancel one anorher?
Does Kari Lake actually think that Tweet makes her look tough? What a dope she is.
If the U.S. agencies were able to monitor transmissions from the balloon, it might make sense to wait until it crosses the whole country. Perhaps they can examine the hardware and determine how the secret codes work. It is good to have a large number of sample transmissions.
Most of time it was not flying over anything secret, so there was no benefit to the Chinese. I have read that when it did pass over secret locations, the U.S. was able to jam the signal.
It seems like an inept way to conduct surveillance compared to satellite recon. However, experts on Japanese national news (NHK) say there are some advantages to putting the sensors closer to the ground.
Stephen King is the greatest - and Fairy Tale is pretty good too. I can't read the latest trump book ALL THE TIME !!!
Sorry Charlie - you did say that if Dark Brandon shot it down, the country would unite behind that. Not so much, in reality. Bummer.
Thank you for your morning shots newsletters Charlie, today and every day.
Barbara
We're doomed! Not by the fricken balloon or even the Chinese but by the insanity affecting what used to be the Republican party.
They wanted to be able to gather info from the balloon after it was shot down, as well as not harming anyone in the process. I think they dealt with it much better than stoopnagle administration did. He didn't do, or possibly didn't know anything about anything about it.
The Damon Linker quote nailed it, sadly. So many knee-jerk bad-faith performative partisan takes on the balloon, as with just about everything else. Yeah, "both sides" are know to spin things a bit to make the other side look bad, but the GOP's cynical rote over-the-top nonsense attacks on Biden are nauseating.
As with everything else, they are playing to the MAGA and MAGA-adjacent crowd. Bashing Biden is very good for business, country be damned. And if you're not relentlessly bashing Biden, your primary opponent will be.
Once again the Right has been able to get the media to blow a story up all out of proportion. There was enough hot air to launch an entire fleet of balloons.
My thought on reading the hysterical response from Republicans was that they made themselves look ridiculous. In fact, in the weeks since they took control of the House, they have done nothing else. Then again, anyone who voted for MTG or Gosar et. al. has different standards than I do.
Excellent pod with Elie Honig. I share his views about wimpy AG Garland. How depressing that we have a country full of cowardly men. I guess a woman will have to come to the rescue. We're counting on you, Fani Willis.
This is just a small selection of the articles about Trump being fervently pro-China:
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/15/trump-china-coronavirus-188736
https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2019-08-15/trump-praises-chinese-leader-not-hong-kong-protesters
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election-2020/trump-iowa-rally-biden-putin-kim-xi-president-b1041460.html
And of course Trump and Xi fell in love:
https://www.politico.eu/article/trump-on-chinas-xi-we-love-each-other/
So explain to me like I'm five; why is the GOP demanding Biden's resignation and/or impeachment because they think he's weak on China? Did they ever have a problem when Trump was "in love"?
Regarding the Chinese ballon, if it was a research ballon gone awry, why didn't the Chinese give us a heads up. Hey guys! Something got away from us we mean no harm!
The balloon affair is the latest evidence that the gop needs to be destroyed and a new honest conservative party replace it.