Listen to a reading of this article: In what Austin journalist Christopher Hooks has called "one of the stupidest news cycles in living memory," the entire American political/media class is having an existential meltdown over what the Pentagon claims
I put this in WaPo this am in response to the claim this was proof of China’s expansionism.
My reply below.
Huh? Expansionists? You forgot the biggest expansionist of all. The US. Your 800 foreign military bases in 70 countries? How can you afford to keep these up? The answer is you can’t. You have those bases and your interminable saber rattling at the expense of domestic issues which are literally killing you.
What the hell is wrong ?Your priorities are only accessible via colonoscopy?
You have crap health care with Third World longevity, passed a couple of years ago by Cuba and this year by China. Your education is weak, and you rank 26th for high school attainment beaten by China by the same amount you beat Kazakhstan, and that was 5 y ago. It’ll be worse now. Count on it. Your teachers have been ringing the alarm bell for years. And you say you’re going to outcompete China. Fat chance of that at this rate.
You lead the world or Western world in pollution ( and have done in sum since the Industrial Revolution). And in poverty, esp. child poverty, divorce, obesity, rape ( neck and neck with the Australians), murder, mass shootings, mass murder, racial murder, guns, nukes, chemical weapons, incarceration, etc.
But have one balloon go off course and you have people reaching for muzzles and rabies shots. Get a grip. Talk to birdwatchers. They love it when Asian and Siberian birds get blown over to America. You’re the same menace that got you voted greatest threat to world peace, years ago. Maybe not as good.
After having Russia kick its ass in Ukraine, it is the height of stupidity to think it can turn to China and have a better Result.
Garland Nixon had a great bit of sarcasm today while he was reviewing China's options. "Don't make me call Putin -- boy!"
The American Oligarchy has been revealed for the stupid greedy bastards they are. Saudi Arabia is making nice with Iran as they both work on becoming members of the SCO and disentangling themselves from the USA.
It will be interesting to see the US Navy aircraft carriers destroyed in the first week of the coming war by hypersonic missiles built by Russia. There's little threat of the US being invaded by Russia or China, there's little here they covet. A disintegrating infrastructure, homelessness, drug addition and an illiterate society that can't do basic arithmetic.
American Hegemony is dead, and soon the world will no longer need the dollar as a reserve currency.
If you are an American this is a really huge deal. Britain has become a third-world nation, don't think it can't happen here. The American Oligarchy wants to impose their own neo-serfdom on you. Will you let them? Or will you fight back?
Exactly. Thousands of spy satellites in the sky far more capable yet a highly visible balloon drifting aimlessly has everyone freaked out. Even Tucker Carlson had his panties in a twist. I can't get over how stupid people are. Hurry, time to start bombing somewhere or we're all going to die!
"Ask an empire apologist to show you how China is aggressing against the US and they'll start babbling about TikTok and balloons."
This. If this most recent media warmongering doesn't convince the public that the US is whipping us into a war fury, I don't know what else will. William Randolph Hearst might have said, "You supply the photographs, I'll supply the war," in the 1890s, but nowadays it's the US government that is saying, "You supply a weather balloon and we'll supply the nuclear war."
Sigh. We really need to get those clowns out of office before they start playing touch football with the nuclear codes.
I seriously wonder exactly WHAT it will take, before the world's populations becomes FULLY AWARE of the stone cold fact, that the patently rogue United States of America [where Corporations are ’'Persons’' and Money is ’'Free Speech'’], HAS been, and CONTINUES TO BE - the greatest clear and present danger to ANY semblance of global peace and stability that has EVER existed, NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST??? . . . . 🙄
After being nauseated by what the left-leaning channels were saying tonight I switched to Faux News to see if they were any more sane.
Nope. One angry uninformed mad dog after another, screaming at the viewer that Biden was derelict in letting this “spy plane” collect data on precious U.S. secret silos and bases. And that it was manoeuvrable up there in the jet stream ( fat chance) . The ballon was 19 buses long but shrank to 3 buses to make it more believable, while watching.
However it was an opportunity to spew hatred. The viewer heard about that ridiculous canard about genocide (via the CIA-funded Uighurs) and concentration camps when the Uighur population has risen several times faster than the Han. The reeducation centers were emptied three yrs ago.
Spittle fortunately does travel with tv transmission signals.
I’ve seen mad animals with distemper having more control of themselves.
They want war, it’s pretty clear. They can’t deal with there being no war for so long. This ain’t gonna be Granada, however.
One thing I always laugh about is how the US officials, after sending murder robots to the foreign lands, start acting like nobody else in the world has a better understanding of international law than them. The #EmpireAtAllCosts cult has some of the most arrogant people in the world - they see a "vibrant democracy" in the US surrounding China militarily and a "breach of sovereignty" over a balloon.
I also have a newsletter which is focused at peeling away the illusions we live and develop our systems under.
It talks about the two biggest threats to humanity: climate change and nuclear war, animal cruelty, and the various propaganda tactics the elites use to prevent us from taking action against the above crises.
The most fundamental cause of our trajectory towards destruction is the human mind, or more specifically, the Ego. So, you will also see articles on transcending our ego.
A weather balloon gone off course makes a hell of a lot more sense than a “spy balloon”. What could a spy balloon do that a spy satellite could not? Surely the Chinese and every other major power especially the US have spy satellites orbiting around for decades.
The political media class are fucking idiots and a danger to our society with the constant beating of their war chests like methed up gorillas. Last night we had record breaking cold in the northeast, the real temp was something like -46.3F atop mount mansfield when I went to bed, with a top wind gust of 127MPH and sustained 100MPH winds with a possible record breaking windchill of -108F. Not only that, but for a brief period, the stratosphere dropped to around 4000ft elevation.
Extreme cold is nothing new in New England, but what’s odd is usually such cold temps are accompanied by light winds at most, not hurricane force winds. If I were a world superpower I too would have a weather balloon out there measuring what the hell was going on.
"American spies are having a much harder time conducting operations and recruiting assets in China than they used to because of measures the Chinese government has taken to thwart them,"
Gee, you think it could have anything to do with eliminating extreme poverty, providing universal health care, and free education? Maybe the Chinese are "happy"! /s
Don't let the balloon distraction keep you from checking out Project Veritas's videos showing you that Pfizer was aware that the vaccine negatively affects women's menstrual cycles and fertility.
Getting permanently poisoned by government-sanctioned chemicals should make you realize that they want you fat, sick, isolated, depressed, distracted, and afraid: the better to control you, extract your wealth, and then discard you when you are old.
And they'll claim they're doing it all for your health, and the environment.
Flying balloons is what the US spends most of its time at, as in: "do you feel threatened by, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, South America Africa, Russia, Serbia , Libya, and, as Zizek would have it, "so on and so forth and so on ... " And if not, why not? And even when they flop over, these trial balloons, the US still insists these threats exist, and must and will be dealt with. "For their own good of course," as in a trial ballon re the Iraq threat to the West that had some support (Tony Blare?). Hope he's calmer these days.
The regime is doing everything it can to provoke a war with Russia and China.
The sad part is that most Americans don’t know anything about what their own government is doing around the world.
What do you call an American diplomat who freaks out over a Chinese balloon 🎈?
A Buffoon
I put this in WaPo this am in response to the claim this was proof of China’s expansionism.
My reply below.
Huh? Expansionists? You forgot the biggest expansionist of all. The US. Your 800 foreign military bases in 70 countries? How can you afford to keep these up? The answer is you can’t. You have those bases and your interminable saber rattling at the expense of domestic issues which are literally killing you.
What the hell is wrong ?Your priorities are only accessible via colonoscopy?
You have crap health care with Third World longevity, passed a couple of years ago by Cuba and this year by China. Your education is weak, and you rank 26th for high school attainment beaten by China by the same amount you beat Kazakhstan, and that was 5 y ago. It’ll be worse now. Count on it. Your teachers have been ringing the alarm bell for years. And you say you’re going to outcompete China. Fat chance of that at this rate.
You lead the world or Western world in pollution ( and have done in sum since the Industrial Revolution). And in poverty, esp. child poverty, divorce, obesity, rape ( neck and neck with the Australians), murder, mass shootings, mass murder, racial murder, guns, nukes, chemical weapons, incarceration, etc.
But have one balloon go off course and you have people reaching for muzzles and rabies shots. Get a grip. Talk to birdwatchers. They love it when Asian and Siberian birds get blown over to America. You’re the same menace that got you voted greatest threat to world peace, years ago. Maybe not as good.
Celine's First Law readeth thusly: "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity."
After having Russia kick its ass in Ukraine, it is the height of stupidity to think it can turn to China and have a better Result.
Garland Nixon had a great bit of sarcasm today while he was reviewing China's options. "Don't make me call Putin -- boy!"
The American Oligarchy has been revealed for the stupid greedy bastards they are. Saudi Arabia is making nice with Iran as they both work on becoming members of the SCO and disentangling themselves from the USA.
It will be interesting to see the US Navy aircraft carriers destroyed in the first week of the coming war by hypersonic missiles built by Russia. There's little threat of the US being invaded by Russia or China, there's little here they covet. A disintegrating infrastructure, homelessness, drug addition and an illiterate society that can't do basic arithmetic.
American Hegemony is dead, and soon the world will no longer need the dollar as a reserve currency.
If you are an American this is a really huge deal. Britain has become a third-world nation, don't think it can't happen here. The American Oligarchy wants to impose their own neo-serfdom on you. Will you let them? Or will you fight back?
Exactly. Thousands of spy satellites in the sky far more capable yet a highly visible balloon drifting aimlessly has everyone freaked out. Even Tucker Carlson had his panties in a twist. I can't get over how stupid people are. Hurry, time to start bombing somewhere or we're all going to die!
"Ask an empire apologist to show you how China is aggressing against the US and they'll start babbling about TikTok and balloons."
This. If this most recent media warmongering doesn't convince the public that the US is whipping us into a war fury, I don't know what else will. William Randolph Hearst might have said, "You supply the photographs, I'll supply the war," in the 1890s, but nowadays it's the US government that is saying, "You supply a weather balloon and we'll supply the nuclear war."
Sigh. We really need to get those clowns out of office before they start playing touch football with the nuclear codes.
I seriously wonder exactly WHAT it will take, before the world's populations becomes FULLY AWARE of the stone cold fact, that the patently rogue United States of America [where Corporations are ’'Persons’' and Money is ’'Free Speech'’], HAS been, and CONTINUES TO BE - the greatest clear and present danger to ANY semblance of global peace and stability that has EVER existed, NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST??? . . . . 🙄
After being nauseated by what the left-leaning channels were saying tonight I switched to Faux News to see if they were any more sane.
Nope. One angry uninformed mad dog after another, screaming at the viewer that Biden was derelict in letting this “spy plane” collect data on precious U.S. secret silos and bases. And that it was manoeuvrable up there in the jet stream ( fat chance) . The ballon was 19 buses long but shrank to 3 buses to make it more believable, while watching.
However it was an opportunity to spew hatred. The viewer heard about that ridiculous canard about genocide (via the CIA-funded Uighurs) and concentration camps when the Uighur population has risen several times faster than the Han. The reeducation centers were emptied three yrs ago.
Spittle fortunately does travel with tv transmission signals.
I’ve seen mad animals with distemper having more control of themselves.
They want war, it’s pretty clear. They can’t deal with there being no war for so long. This ain’t gonna be Granada, however.
You are right, Caitlin.
One thing I always laugh about is how the US officials, after sending murder robots to the foreign lands, start acting like nobody else in the world has a better understanding of international law than them. The #EmpireAtAllCosts cult has some of the most arrogant people in the world - they see a "vibrant democracy" in the US surrounding China militarily and a "breach of sovereignty" over a balloon.
I also have a newsletter which is focused at peeling away the illusions we live and develop our systems under.
It talks about the two biggest threats to humanity: climate change and nuclear war, animal cruelty, and the various propaganda tactics the elites use to prevent us from taking action against the above crises.
The most fundamental cause of our trajectory towards destruction is the human mind, or more specifically, the Ego. So, you will also see articles on transcending our ego.
https://awakes.substack.com
It's about time somebody trolled the US the way it's been trolling the world for decades.
A weather balloon gone off course makes a hell of a lot more sense than a “spy balloon”. What could a spy balloon do that a spy satellite could not? Surely the Chinese and every other major power especially the US have spy satellites orbiting around for decades.
The political media class are fucking idiots and a danger to our society with the constant beating of their war chests like methed up gorillas. Last night we had record breaking cold in the northeast, the real temp was something like -46.3F atop mount mansfield when I went to bed, with a top wind gust of 127MPH and sustained 100MPH winds with a possible record breaking windchill of -108F. Not only that, but for a brief period, the stratosphere dropped to around 4000ft elevation.
Extreme cold is nothing new in New England, but what’s odd is usually such cold temps are accompanied by light winds at most, not hurricane force winds. If I were a world superpower I too would have a weather balloon out there measuring what the hell was going on.
"American spies are having a much harder time conducting operations and recruiting assets in China than they used to because of measures the Chinese government has taken to thwart them,"
Gee, you think it could have anything to do with eliminating extreme poverty, providing universal health care, and free education? Maybe the Chinese are "happy"! /s
Don't let the balloon distraction keep you from checking out Project Veritas's videos showing you that Pfizer was aware that the vaccine negatively affects women's menstrual cycles and fertility.
Getting permanently poisoned by government-sanctioned chemicals should make you realize that they want you fat, sick, isolated, depressed, distracted, and afraid: the better to control you, extract your wealth, and then discard you when you are old.
And they'll claim they're doing it all for your health, and the environment.
"Ninety-nine red balloons
Floating in the summer sky
Panic bells, it′s red alert
There's something here from somewhere else"
Flying balloons is what the US spends most of its time at, as in: "do you feel threatened by, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, South America Africa, Russia, Serbia , Libya, and, as Zizek would have it, "so on and so forth and so on ... " And if not, why not? And even when they flop over, these trial balloons, the US still insists these threats exist, and must and will be dealt with. "For their own good of course," as in a trial ballon re the Iraq threat to the West that had some support (Tony Blare?). Hope he's calmer these days.