#46 President Joe Biden

Merkin Baller

Hahahaha

From last night's Letter to an American: 

"Last night, during President Biden’s State of the Union address, House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) complained by tweet that Biden hadn’t mentioned China in the first hour of his speech, suggesting that the president wasn’t taking the issue seriously enough. Today, when CNN’s Manu Raju asked McCarthy if he was okay with New York representative George Santos—the serial liar who is currently under threat of an ethics investigation over where his campaign money came from—attending that classified briefing, McCarthy said, “Yes.”


What a fucking joke. 

mickeyrat

Merkin Baller said:

Hahahaha

From last night's Letter to an American: 

"Last night, during President Biden’s State of the Union address, House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) complained by tweet that Biden hadn’t mentioned China in the first hour of his speech, suggesting that the president wasn’t taking the issue seriously enough. Today, when CNN’s Manu Raju asked McCarthy if he was okay with New York representative George Santos—the serial liar who is currently under threat of an ethics investigation over where his campaign money came from—attending that classified briefing, McCarthy said, “Yes.”


What a fucking joke. 

tweeting during the speech from the dais......

Halifax2TheMax

mickeyrat said:

Merkin Baller said:

Hahahaha

From last night's Letter to an American: 

"Last night, during President Biden’s State of the Union address, House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) complained by tweet that Biden hadn’t mentioned China in the first hour of his speech, suggesting that the president wasn’t taking the issue seriously enough. Today, when CNN’s Manu Raju asked McCarthy if he was okay with New York representative George Santos—the serial liar who is currently under threat of an ethics investigation over where his campaign money came from—attending that classified briefing, McCarthy said, “Yes.”


What a fucking joke. 

tweeting during the speech from the dais......

While his committee opened hearings the following day on how the Brandon crime family, along with the FBI and Twitter silenced the free speech of conservatives. Yea, what a joke.

mrussel1

The trap Biden set and sprung on the social security issue was really impressive. 

Halifax2TheMax

mrussel1 said:

The trap Biden set and sprung on the social security issue was really impressive. 

Are you kidding me? Brandon slept walk through that “speech.”

mrussel1

Halifax2TheMax said:

mrussel1 said:

The trap Biden set and sprung on the social security issue was really impressive. 

Are you kidding me? Brandon slept walk through that “speech.”

Are you doing the fake conservative Stephen Colbert now?

Halifax2TheMax

mrussel1 said:

Halifax2TheMax said:

mrussel1 said:

The trap Biden set and sprung on the social security issue was really impressive. 

Are you kidding me? Brandon slept walk through that “speech.”

Are you doing the fake conservative Stephen Colbert now?

You should have heard the dem representative calling out his repub colleagues on the Brandon crime family committee for basically the same thing. “C’mon guys, which is it? Everyday you take to twitter to criticize President Brandon about how senile he is, or asleep and too old, or incompetent and should be impeached for dereliction of duty and yet you stand before us and the American people today and are trying to convince us that the Brandon crime family is some diabolical mastermind to squash freedom of speech? C’mon, really? What are we doing here today?” Or words to that effect. It’s well worth a watch.

In the next life I want to be Stephen Colbert or David Letterman.

mrussel1

Halifax2TheMax said:

mrussel1 said:

Halifax2TheMax said:

mrussel1 said:

The trap Biden set and sprung on the social security issue was really impressive. 

Are you kidding me? Brandon slept walk through that “speech.”

Are you doing the fake conservative Stephen Colbert now?

You should have heard the dem representative calling out his repub colleagues on the Brandon crime family committee for basically the same thing. “C’mon guys, which is it? Everyday you take to twitter to criticize President Brandon about how senile he is, or asleep and too old, or incompetent and should be impeached for dereliction of duty and yet you stand before us and the American people today and are trying to convince us that the Brandon crime family is some diabolical mastermind to squash freedom of speech? C’mon, really? What are we doing here today?” Or words to that effect. It’s well worth a watch.

In the next life I want to be Stephen Colbert or David Letterman.

The irony of their arguments is so thick.  Your example is a great one.  The other is how the democrats are morons,  incapable,  etc. But they are also diabolical that they can steal every election and leave no trace of it.  Trump was powerless to stop it or even identify how it's done.  It's hilarious. 

mrussel1

I'm not sure where the balloon thread was,  but here's Romney post hearing with the DOD. 

It's what we call "normal". 

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/3851414-romney-defends-bidens-handling-of-chinese-balloon/

Gern Blansten

As soon as I heard Cotton's "weapon" argument I thought how horrible it would have been to shoot it down over land and possibly release a chemical weapon or worse upon whomever was in its path. What a stupid argument.

mickeyrat

https://apnews.com/article/chinese-balloon-military-involvement-e45c759cb00294e83989fa35970935bc

 

United States government China

US says China balloon could collect intelligence signals

By MATTHEW LEE and ERIC TUCKER

47 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — The China balloon shot down by the U.S. was equipped to detect and collect intelligence signals as part of a huge, military-linked aerial surveillance program that targeted more than 40 countries, the Biden administration declared Thursday, citing imagery from American U-2 spy planes.

A fleet of balloons operates under the direction of the People's Liberation Army and is used specifically for spying, outfitted with high-tech equipment designed to gather sensitive information from targets across the globe, the U.S. said. Similar balloons have sailed over five continents, according to the administration.

A statement from a senior State Department official offered the most detail to date linking China’s military to the balloon that was shot down by the U.S. last weekend over the Atlantic Ocean. The public details outlining the program's scope and capabilities were meant to refute China’s persistent denials that the balloon was used for spying, including a claim Thursday that U.S. accusations about the balloon amount to “information warfare."

On Capitol Hill, the House voted unanimously to condemn China for a “brazen violation” of U.S. sovereignty and efforts to “deceive the international community through false claims about its intelligence collection campaigns.” Republicans have criticized President Joe Biden for not acting sooner to down the balloon, but both parties' lawmakers came together on the vote, 419-0.

In Beijing, before the U.S. offered its new information, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning repeated her nation's insistence that the large unmanned balloon was a civilian meteorological airship that had blown off course and that the U.S. had “overreacted” by shooting it down.

“It is irresponsible,” Mao said. The latest accusations, she said, “may be part of the U.S. side’s information warfare against China.”

Underscoring the tensions, China’s defense minister refused to take a phone call from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to discuss the balloon issue on Saturday, the Pentagon said. Secretary of State Antony Blinken canceled a planned weekend trip to Beijing.

The U.S. flatly contradicted China's version of events, saying that imagery of the balloon collected by American U-2 spy planes as it crossed the country showed that it was “capable of conducting signals intelligence collection” with multiple antennas and other equipment designed to upload sensitive information and solar panels to power them.

Jedidiah Royal, the U.S. assistant defense secretary for the Indo-Pacific, told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee that the military has “some very good guesses” about what intelligence China was seeking. More information was expected to be provided in a classified setting.

Senior FBI officials who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the bureau said just a few pieces of the balloon had arrived at the FBI’s Quantico, Virginia, lab for investigation. So far, investigators have parts of the balloon canopy, wiring, and what one official called “a very small amount of electronics.” The official said it was “very early for us to assess what the intent was and how the device was operating.”

According to two U.S. officials, the balloon recovery efforts were temporarily suspended on Thursday due to high seas. They said some balloon debris was intact on the ocean floor and divers had recovered potentially high-value equipment over the past day and a half.

Much of the debris is concentrated in two separate sections of an area 15 football fields long and 15 fields across, according to the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the collection process.

The State Department official, providing details to reporters by email, also on condition of anonymity, said an analysis of the balloon debris was “inconsistent” with China’s explanation that it was a weather balloon that went off course. The U.S. is reaching out to countries that have also been targeted, the official said, to discuss the scope of the Chinese surveillance program, and is looking into potential action that “supported the balloon’s incursion into U.S. airspace.”

The official said the U.S. has confidence that the manufacturer of the balloon shot down on Saturday has “a direct relationship with China’s military and is an approved vendor of the” army. The official cited information from an official PLA procurement portal as evidence for the connection between the company and the military.

State Department spokesman Ned Price would not identify the other countries the U.S. says have also been targeted. Nor would he reveal how the U.S. knows there have been Chinese incursions over those countries' territory, saying to do so could compromise intelligence sources and methods.

The release of new information appeared part of a coordinated administration response, with multiple officials appearing before congressional committees to face questions about the balloon.

Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said officials had taken “all necessary steps to protect sensitive information” and had been able to study and scrutinize the balloon and its equipment.

“We will continue to answer the dangers posed by the PRC with determination and resolve,” Sherman said, referring to the People's Republic of China. "We will make clear to the PRC that violations of our sovereignty and the sovereignty of other countries are unacceptable.”

At a separate Senate subcommittee hearing, lawmakers repeatedly pressed administration officials, including Pentagon military leaders, about why the balloon was not shot down over sparsely populated areas of Alaska. And they questioned whether allowing the balloon to transit such a large area set a precedent for future spying efforts by China and others.

“It defies belief that there was not a single opportunity to safely shoot this spy balloon prior to the coast of South Carolina,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. “By the administration’s logic we would allow the Chinese to fly surveillance balloons over the Pentagon or other sensitive sites and populated areas.”

Melissa Dalton, assistant defense secretary of Homeland Defense, and Lt. Gen. Doug Sims, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the U.S. wanted to avoid any injuries or deaths from the debris field if the balloon was shot down over Alaska.

And they added that shooting it down over the frigid, icy waters in that region would have made it more difficult and dangerous to recover the pieces for more analysis.

“We thought before we shot,” said Sims.This is not the first time the U.S. government has publicly called out alleged activities of the People’s Liberation Army. In a first-of-its-kind prosecution in 2014, the Obama administration Justice Department indicted five accused PLA hackers of breaking into the computer networks of major American corporations in an effort to steal trade secrets.

_____

Associated Press writers Nomaan Merchant and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.

Go Beavers

I didn’t know they’re still flying U-2s. 

Halifax2TheMax

Who wants one?

Poncier

Go Beavers said:

I didn’t know they’re still flying U-2s. 

Go Beavers

Poncier said:

Go Beavers said:

I didn’t know they’re still flying U-2s. 

Who outlives who, the band or the plane? 

The Juggler

What the hell is Fox Soul?

Halifax2TheMax

Damn you Brandon! I can't wait to hear all of the complaints of the 'gubmint destroying Sister Sarah's porch! And Maggie Three Names is going to demand answers as to why she wasn't consulted! Damn you Brandon!

U.S. shoots down ‘high-altitude’ object over Alaska

The United States shot down a "high-altitude" object as it flew over Alaska near the northern Canadian border on Friday, White House officials confirmed amid ongoing concerns over Chinese surveillance balloons flying over North America.

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby would not say if the object was a balloon or what entity owned it. He said the object, about the size of a "small car," was flying at 40,000 feet and posed a "reasonable threat" to civilian aircraft.

President Joe Biden gave the order to shoot down the object "out of an abundance of caution" and at the Pentagon's recommendation, Kirby added.

The incident came a week after U.S. and Canadian officials first confirmed a Chinese surveillance balloon had flown over Canada and across the continental U.S. over the course of several days. The balloon was ultimately shot down over the Atlantic Ocean on Saturday.

Kirby said the object shot down Friday was "much, much smaller" than the Chinese balloon and was not carrying a "significant payload." Efforts are underway to recover the object, which was first detected Thursday evening.

Pentagon spokesperson Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said the origin and capabilities of the object won't be known until it is recovered and assessed. He was careful to not say whether the object was a balloon or had any surveillance capabilities.

He also denied suggestions the Pentagon was bowing to political pressure by shooting this object down as soon as it was detected over Alaska. Some Republicans have criticized Biden for not ordering to shoot down the balloon sooner, which the Pentagon has defended by citing the potential risk to safety on the ground.

"We're going to judge each of these objects on its own merits," Ryder said.

Video: NATO chief Stoltenberg, US’ Blinken warn of growing Chinese military surveillance, threats after balloon incident

Speaking to reporters in Washington on Friday, Defence Minister Anita Anand did not say Friday where the earlier balloon was when it first entered Canadian airspace, or what locations it passed over and for how long it was over Canada before heading south.

The U.S. navy and coast guard are working to recover pieces of the downed balloon for analysis and they’re working to determine if it collected any intelligence from either country, Anand said.

The balloon's sighting has reignited tensions between the U.S. and China and raised renewed fears of foreign surveillance and interference by Beijing.

U.S. shoots down ‘high-altitude’ object over Alaska (msn.com)

gimmesometruth27

is the gop angry that we shot it down yet, or nah?

mickeyrat

https://apnews.com/article/biden-politics-charles-schumer-jake-sullivan-china-acc1a333326c50ee9649760c569c300f

 

United States government Montana Alaska Lake Huron

'Unidentified object' downed over Lake Huron, 3rd this week

By COLLEEN LONG, LOLITA C. BALDOR and ZEKE MILLER

42 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — An "unidentified object” was shot down with a missile by U.S. fighter jets Sunday over Lake Huron, and it was believed to be the same one tracked over Montana and monitored by the government beginning the night before, U.S. officials said.

The downing comes after earlier objects in Alaska and Canada were shot out of the sky because they were flying at altitudes that posed a threat to commercial aircraft, according to the officials, who had knowledge of the downings and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive operations.

U.S. and Canadian authorities had restricted some airspace over the lake earlier Sunday as planes were scrambled to intercept and try to identify the object.

Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., tweeted that “the object has been downed by pilots from the U.S. Air Force and National Guard.” The shootdown was confirmed by four U.S. officials.

The news comes as U.S. officials were still trying to precisely identify the other two objects blown from the sky by F-22 fighter jets over the past two days, and were working to determine whether China was responsible as concerns escalate about what Washington says is Beijing's large-scale aerial surveillance program.

---

ALASKA

Trudeau: US fighter shot down object over northern Canada

US jet shoots down unknown object flying off Alaska coast

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The object shot down Saturday over the Yukon was described by U.S. officials as a balloon significantly smaller than the three school bus-size balloon hit by a missile Feb. 4 while drifting off the South Carolina coast after traversing the country. A flying object brought down over the remote northern coast of Alaska on Friday was more cylindrical and described as a type of airship.

Both were believed to have a payload, either attached or suspended from them, according to the officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation. Officials were not able to say who launched the objects and were seeking to figure out their origin.

U.S. officials said the two more recent objects were much smaller in size, different in appearance and flew at lower altitudes than the suspected Chinese spy balloon that fell into the Atlantic Ocean after the U.S. missile strike. They said the Alaska and Canada objects were not consistent with the fleet of Chinese aerial surveillance balloons that targeted more than 40 countries, stretching back at least into the Trump administration.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Sunday that on his order a U.S. fighter jet shot down an "unidentified object" that was flying high over northern Canada, acting a day after the U.S. took similar action over Alaska. (Feb. 12)

That large white orb first appeared over the U.S. in late January, and since then Americans have been fixated on the sky above them. U.S. authorities made clear that they constantly monitor for unknown radar blips, and it is not unusual to shut down airspace as a precaution to evaluate them, but they'd also take action when necessary.

On Sunday, the U.S. briefly closed the airspace over Lake Michigan but reopened it roughly an hour later. later.

___

Associated Press writers Michael Balsamo, Ellen Knickmeyer and Tara Copp contributed to this report.

brianlux

gimmesometruth27 said:

is the gop angry that we shot it down yet, or nah?

Won't know until they've decided if it was shot down too soon or too late. 

Then beer bottles be flyin'!