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The one constant among all western liberal parties is how bad they are at politics. |
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An unidentified flying object was just shot down off the coast of Alaska. They said it was roughly the size of a car. My guess is Chinese not alien origin.
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I, for one, welcome our alien overlords.
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Poor Kodos
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Hey this is real, he hasn't posted to refute yet |
China must be pissed that we no longer have a President with a daughter trying to get trademarks for her handbags in China.
We keep shooting down their spy shit instead of pretending it doesn't exist. |
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But Hunter's laptop |
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Trump team turns over additional classified records and laptop to federal prosecutors | CNN Politics Every accusation is a confession for the GOP. |
Canada has also shot down an unidentified object and then immediately apologized to it.
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More documents found in Pence's home as well on Friday. |
And now an area of airspace over Montana has been shut down.
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Any chance of just shutting down Montana?
Just sayin |
Man if only the US had a Space Force...
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The explanation I have seen of all this is that NORAD has turned off some filters on radar that had ignored these objects in the past. So now we suddenly have all these objects everywhere, but they have actually been around for a long time.
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CNN said the US shot down the object over Canada after Trudeau okayed it. There was a Canadian F-16 also but it was the US F-22 that took it down.
I’m sure the rationale will come out soon but just seems a little weird Canada didn’t take it down herself. |
NORAD is a joint command between the US and Canada. So it was shot down by command of Trudeau, but the craft with the better shot took it.
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Does shooting down balloons count towards Ace status?
Maverick, Iceman and Hangman may have some competition now. |
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Basically our Alaska based fighters were closer than their Alberta based fighters and got there first. Which was just as intended by NORAD. |
It would be cool if it was aliens but it's probably just a weather balloon. They do a lot of scientific research up there with weather balloons.
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The bigger story is that the F35 remains worthless.
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Now the action is over Lake Michigan as an AWACS and tanker (probably fighters as well, but they wouldn't show on radar) circle above the lake. They have not said whether they have a hit or not on radar, but most likely they have and just don't want to speculate until they know what it is. The Montana one yesterday was a false alarm, and I imagine turning down the filters is going to increase the number of false alarms they are going to have to react to with full force till they get a confirmation.
They are also reporting that both UFO's shot down in the last couple of days were balloons. China has been sending these balloons out over the four corners of the earth for awhile it seems. These small ones just didn't get noticed until the big one sort of sold the whole project out. Honestly, kudos to them. Rather ingenious. |
Dola: Even as a typed that we get confirmation of a balloon shot down over Lake Huron.
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This article is from a couple years ago and sort of talks about what is happening.
Adversary Drones Are Spying On The U.S. And The Pentagon Acts Like They're UFOs |
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If I'm reading correctly, the recent ones have been at ~40,000 feet, which poses a threat to commercial aircraft, as I believe most cruising altitudes are 30,000 to maybe 45,000 feet? @PilotMan It seems unlikely everyone would have been OK with this for years if these were indeed the altitudes the objects were at. So my guess is the change in operating altitude is what's brought it on. That's presuming that the earlier ones (during the Trump administration) were operating at, say, 60,000 feet+. Quote:
Yeah, seems like the risk-free mission for which the F-35 was built. |
I guess another alternative is that NORAD has known exactly what these were for some time and deemed them not a threat, but eventually someone made the call that the public was likely to find out, and so it was decided to start shooting them down.
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There is no truth to the rumor that the object shot over Lake Huron had "Goodyear" on its side.
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Feels like we should be getting more information about these objects by now. Unless it's just to keep attention away from what's going on in Ohio.
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I guess it’s obvious it’s not a one shot deal (or mistake) with the multiple UFOs we’ve seen. Likely they are coming from China.
But wonder if we can positively confirm they came from China by backtracking the trade winds, known trajectory (or whatever) and show the satellite tracking. And so why is China doing this? I read there are advantages in gathering intel in a relatively slow moving balloon that you can maneuver up and down. But you’d still think China would realize that one of these would be taken down and is the intel worth the western condemnation (and embarrassment). Weird. My guess is something that has been going on for years but Xi didn’t really know the extent. But good initiative by some PLA general. |
Per Bloomberg article. Interesting turn of events if true. I’d like to see some evidence first. We’ll definitely lose the moral high ground.
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Speaking of which ... The handling of this, including locally, seems weirdly laid back... |
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When you read about the Cold War spying era, it seems like 95% of the people working at our embassy were spies, and vice versa for the Soviets.
And it was just understood. We're constantly spying on you. You're constantly spying on us. We catch your people sometimes; you catch ours sometimes. We trade them back and forth. And sometimes the media gets wind of it, and we all have to pretend it is a big deal and not something that happens every day. This seems just like that. |
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Yeah. There's a big cloud of toxic gas, and we aren't really talking about it. And the story isn't being hidden or suppressed. It's just . . . I like your words--"weirdly laid back" |
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Reporter arrested during news event on Ohio train derailment Well, the Ohio cops roughed up an arrested a reporter for not stopping his report in time for DeWine to hold his press conference. This whole thing is a slow-moving superfund site and I think we all know how this plays out. If you live anywhere near there, you've already been exposed to a ton of cancer causing agents. There are going to start being illness clusters over the next few years. But if you lived there and most of your "wealth" is tied up in your home, you can't do anything about it because the value is worthless. But, hey, they offered to buy off these people for $25K, like that would fix all the above problems. And, somehow, not a single person at that railroad will face any real monetary damages or jail. They might fire an overworked peon or two. SI |
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Dianne Feinstein won't run for re-election in 2024 opening the door for an Adam Schiff and Katie Porter run for the seat
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Nvm. Admin is saying the +3 are probably benign. I guess good practice with $400k missiles. |
Hot Biden from college photo making the rounds. I feel like we don't see as many young photos of him as we did other recent presidents
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Oh the ravages of age. And even though I wasn't born quite yet in 1967, it doesn't feel like that long ago. When I was a little kid in the early 80's, it was just the equivalent of maybe 2008 now. |
Yesterday my gun loving, maga/libertarian/whateverfitsuseit congressman proposed a bill that was just - The Department of Education will cease to exist as of December 31, 2023.
That was it. No other problems to solve, no other solutions, just that he no longer feels that the government of the country that you were raised in should be responsible, in any way, for the education of it's citizens. Thomas Massie is a massive hypocrite, and an even bigger douchebag. |
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Where in the constitution does give it the federal government the power to fund or regulate education? |
General Welfare clause. Necessary and Proper clause.
We are under the Constitution, not the Articles of Confederation. |
I hate he is going through this:
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I'm glad that he is getting the treatment he needs
The more famous people who are open about their mental health struggles, the easier it makes it for others to get the treatment they need |
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I challenge you to produce a well functioning society without any sort of organized educational system. I promise you it will fail, or be overrun by someone else. Promise. It's the primary investment that the government makes for the future. |
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I actually don't have a problem with ending venue shopping, the problem is you then have to hope the judges in your state aren't owned by the people you filed suit against.
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This ruling would result in venue shopping by corporations. They can pick and choose where they are allowed to be sued. So someone who was sick from the chemical spill in Ohio may have to sue in Alabama which is incredibly costly. |
Norfolk Southern requires employees to sue only in court jurisdictions that they choose. This is a "good for me, not for thee" lawsuit, and the Biden administration should be ashamed of themselves for joining it.
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This seems bad.
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The EPA has warned against using ground water or drinking from wells until they are tested. What exactly is the lie, then? This seems to come from the sane people saying "no one is talking about East Palestine" when everyone is talking about East Palestine.
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This was the quote from the EPA.
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It's fine I guess, although they did dance around a lot of questions. The story has definitely been covered, but I do think it's fair to ask why it's not getting more coverage. I saw some breakdown about how shooting down some high school kids weather balloon got like 8 times the coverage over a town that was destroyed through corporate and government negligence. Also I think it's fair to start asking when criminal charges will come. |
Coverage of both was dictated by interest more than media. People were going crazy online about the balloon thing, which was always really a near non-story. I'm not seeing hardly any reporting on the balloon story now, but there is still a good bit of reporting in Ohio. I don't know if it is great that social media drives how major media covers stories, but that is where we are.
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If I see another post of a train derailment with a comment "we are under attack" I am going to scream! There ate over 1,000 train derailment every year. This isn't just suddenly happening.
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No disaster here.
FEMA advises Gov. DeWine Ohio is not eligible for assistance at this time Biden is doing what he can to ensure that Ohio is red for the next generation. |
There is nothing Biden can do until Dewine declares it a state of emergency. The Stafford Act ties his hands.
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Well here's Biden's response White House explains why it turned down disaster relief for Ohio |
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They're going to be cleaning that up for 20 years or more. That's not FEMA. We don't send FEMA to Superfund sites. |
Maybe, you know, Norfolk Southern should clean that shit up and pay for it.
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The lobbyists also work for the EPA, so they likely won't do much. And even if they could do something, the SCOTUS would probably rule that you can't punish companies for chemical spills because it's not in the constitution. In a sane country, criminal charges would be filed and the company would be bankrupted or nationalized temporarily. |
Joe is walking around Kyiv as air sirens are blaring.
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You go Joe
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Desantis' comments on this really exposed him. Hr tried to downplay Biden and Russia and accidentally ended up pointing out how much this administration has done to weaken and expose Russia. This gop primary will be interesting. You have an ex president that can't really tout the two biggest accomplishments of his administration (operation warp speed and roe v wade) because they don't play well to significant subsets of voters and a 1 trick candidate that only knows how to fight culture wars. |
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The man puts his name on everything under the sun. And he could have easily called it the Trump vaccine and taken credit for saving millions of lives. And he just didn't. |
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Ah yes, good ol' socialism |
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I imagine there's a timeline where Trump took credit and did name it the Trump vaccine. His supporters flooded clinics asking for the Trump vaccine, not the bad one that kills you. Doctors just accept it and confirm they're getting the Trump vaccine and don't even bothering to try to explain there's no difference. |
The EPA has ordered NFS to pay for the clean up and the cost of impact on the area, and if they don't pay they will be assessed a fine three times the cost.
https://apnews.com/article/ohio-trai...7f56b5b8b4e44e |
I wonder if the inevitable Supreme Court case holding that making a private company pay damages is unconstitutional will be 6-3 or 5-4 with Roberts joining the liberals?
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Disbanding is my first choice since they've shown they cannot safely operate in this country. But I assumed people would argue that we can't do it because it would hurt the economy, so nationalizing them would be the solution. |
Exactly what problem would nationalizing them solve?
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It would get rid of the people who dumped a bunch of toxic chemicals on US soil while softening the blow to the economy from any disruptions. |
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That does feel like the direction we're going. And it's not like the liberal side of the bench is all anti-capitalist. There's at least 8, if not 9, very pro big business justices on the court. It's one of the underreported issues with the current court - even if it were more even on social issues, it would continue the rightward lurch of rights away from individuals and towards corporations. SI |
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Y'know, if I just accept that premise as "stipulated" and contemplate it a bit .. I'm pretty okay with it. The cost/benefit analysis of "individuals" seems to be at an all-time low, at least there's some value (ostensibly anyway) in some of the corporations. At least a higher percentage. The average U.S. nitwit isn't worth the cost of the rope to hang 'em with at this point afaic. So yeah, I'm in favor of the concept you suggest. If you happen across some useful bio info on potential alien overlords though, I'd be interested. Might be a better option than both. |
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I think the problem with that theory is that a corporation is just a collection of those same "nitwits", self selected for sociopathy in leadership However, I, too, would be interested in subscribing to the newsletter of the alien overlord party for voting consideration SI |
Heh, come on SI - you know that sociopathy is a selling point for Jon. Shows him they're serious, committed. (To themselves and only themselves, but remember that Jon takes a dim view toward humanity.)
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I know they had to bribe him out of the primary but couldn't they have made him Ambassador to France or something?
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All fluff I'm sure but it would be nice if there was an unsuccessful attempt. It would be great to lob a bunch of cruise missiles to blow stuff up there and take out more military leaders. And I'm sure Israel will be more than willing to help.
The Iranian situation is a mess. I think we have to accept that Iran will inevitably get their nukes unless there is another Osirak-like or Stuxnet event. I don't think Biden has any good options, economic sanctions don't seem to be working well. IRGC commander says Iran seeks to kill Trump, Pompeo, others as revenge for Soleimani Quote:
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You'd be hard pressed to have a dimmer view than I do. For years I referenced "the rule of 80", which basically said 80 percent of the people you encounter in a lifetime are simply too damned dumb to have been worth the trouble. I've revised that to 90 as much as a decade ago. And am seriously considering whether 95 might be closer to reality at this point. |
I wonder what the reaction would be if Iran took out Trump. Noy militarily, more culturally. And of course the conspiracy theories would be something to see.
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Interestingly, China did not pick up the hot-line phone for the balloon incident. Cultural differences apparently. But then, I'm not sure the balloon incident does rise to that level, I always imagine the hot-line to avoid military clashes or Armageddon scenarios.
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Supreme Court hearing the case today regarding Bidens power to forgive student loan debt. I'm sure it will go how we all think it will.
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Hopefully they reach the correct decision and decide Biden overstepped his authority.
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I don't know how much Biden had to do with this:
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/01/lill...insurance.html But he needs to remind people that it happened under his watch. Especially when election season comes up. |
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Read a CNN article on Robert's questions & statements. I think it's a goner. |
Glad to read they have started working on the Social Security imminent crisis, now estimated for 2032.
Senate group wades into tough talks on Social Security | The Hill Quote:
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Sadly, I doubt anything bipartisan passes the House unless it includes a Special Commissions for Investigating Jewish Space Lasers to mollify Really The Speaker MTG.
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Right now I would be a hard NO on a sovereign wealth fund because I bet you those funds would get steered into companies owned by politicians. Or the funds would get put into the next Theranos or FTX.
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If you are going to go through the trouble of creating a SWF and then say that if the fund does not guarantee 8% returns (which, as Edward notes, is impossible), then you will raise taxes, then that seems like a really inefficient Rube Goldberg machine.
Just raise taxes. |
The social security fix is so easy dumb. Just raise the wage cap and have people paying more into it. The problem is that the people making that much money are not as likely to need it, so they do not really care. Also, start taxing capital gains and carried interest the same as regular income. Why are people who work for their money taxed at a higher rate than people who earn the same money in the market? Is $1 earned on the stock market worth more than $1 earned at work?
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The S&P 500 lost what, 20% last year? How is the public going to react when the Social Security Trust fund loses $200B (at least) in a single year?
I agree with NH that this is mainly a ploy to steer that money to specific financial institutions (which is why, if you look at the advocacy groups supporting this, they're bankrolled by financial institutions). If you had to do this, then I'd require it by law to be invested in an index like the S&P 500 or Russell 2000 with no management fees whatsoever. But only after we do the more obvious fixes (like we talked about the last time in this thread) of upping the taxable income cap (or reinstating it on incomes, say, $1M+, or raising employers' portion of the payroll tax - since companies have lower taxes overall, or any of the other bunch of fixes I posted about last time). |
I can't wait until we invest even more of our retirement monies into making corporations too large to fail in this country. That has no downside whatsoever
SI |
lol that conservatives are floating an idea for the government to own the means of production.
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Well, if you can't have fascism then at least you could have communism, right? :D
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Just to be clear, the article said "both sides" expressed interest.
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Yup. Start taxing capital gains and you fix the problem immediately. It's silly that we've decided certain income is special and doesn't have the same rules. This is seriously not a hard problem to fix. |
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Both sides were also interested in the Paycheck Protection Program and that turned out to be mostly fraud and handouts to people who didn't need it. |
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