I’m not being political. I just think the whole episode is weird and humorous. Don’t the Chinese have spy satellites? I’m mean, dude, you’re a great power. You’re flying balloons. Really? By the way, I wonder what we’d do if the Russians downed one of our spy satellites. Similar concept.
And whether you voted for Biden or not, it’s just damn funny to watch a guy who looks old enough to have been around when balloons were invented briefing reporters on how his military downed one. It’s classic.
Here are some photos from the debris retrieval. Damn. Looks like a balloon. How’d they make that? High tech.
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The whole story seems overblown to me.
What can the balloon do that satellites cannot? Probably nothing.
So why are they flying the balloon?
To embarrass America? Maybe.
To destabilize Xi? Maybe.
As noted above, he would have wanted talks, so them being suspended points to the military maybe being more independent from Xi than first thought?
I believe what I read about it when the news first emerged is that they can hover over areas whereas satellites only pass through, so they can collect a lot more information.
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So apparently Joe Biden baited Republicans into a trap when he called them out for wanting scrap Social Security during his address; he mentioned they want to scrap it, they booed and hissed even though it was true but you know, argue for the sake of arguing, and so he said so we’re all in agreement of keeping it and he got a standing ovation.
I paraphrase obviously, but gotta hand it to Dark Brandon. These fools in the Republican party only know the slash and burn type of politics and obviously know nothing about real statesmanship.
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They spy on us, we spy on them (but probably a lot more and better than they can do to us).
Its all just fun and games for the respective intelligence services to be honest.
The general rule of spying is we both know we’re each doing it to each other and as such the accepted limits of the counter measures are commensurate with how brazen the spying is. As such, shooting down a satellite is considered a very different level of response than a spy balloon. However, there are semi frequent fuck ups in this sort of situation and the accepted behavior is both sides are allowed to saber rattle for a short period while both sides immediately look for the off ramp.
Back in the early years of the Bush period, pre-9/11 we had an issue with China where one of our spy planes took out one of their jets. They lost their plane and pilot and our plane crash landed in their territory and so China took all crew as prisoners. It was complicated because the issue was mostly over seeing what was happening in disputed territory, but Bush made a public apology and the US crew were given back without much more effort. It was a major diplomatic incident at the time that is probably only not remembered now given what would happen a couple of months later, but there is also the general understanding that the only real tensions were a dance that both sides understood the other had to do to save face at home, with everyone knowing where the off ramp was.
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Really quite striking how un-serious the GOP are simply allowed to be. Speaking with a straight face about balancing the budget by 2032 while not touching huge spending areas (as much as 60% of the total depending on whom you listen to). It would take an 85% budget cut in the remaining areas to achieve that. The cuts to Agriculture alone would have them screaming.
It was quite clever how he did that.
The doddery old fella is no orator, but that was a good moment.
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I’m glad joe is getting props for playing this well, but this is outrageous behavior. In Obama’s first SOTU (well not really, as it doesnt get to be called the SOTU the first time they do it) he was met with a single shout of “you lie” when covering an objective policy issue and there was palpable shock from the rest of the chamber. Criticism of the individual from his own party leaders was swift and unambiguous. Today it turned into panto.
And this wasnt because he called them cunts. It was because he said something factual about something that is demonstrably correct.
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It really is right back to the level of decorum of the 1850’s.
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Or like PMQs every week in the UK
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Question time is an exchange. This is an address.
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Closest thing to a Throne Speech there is in the US system.
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He has these occasional moments that remind you he’s been doing politics since before a lotnof the people in that room were born. He may be a deeply underwhelming presence in his old age but he still knows how to run rings round people like MTG and Matt Gaetz when he wants to.
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To go back to this point, balloons are able to get far more detailed information on the areas they cover for a variety of techy reasons. It’s mostly a matter of distance from the thing being pictured, but also issues with atmospheric disturbances of the signal transmission.
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He was wildly surpassed my expectations, but even with that I cannot get on board with him going again.
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Totally agree, but who is the alternative?
