The Brew: Objects, Objects Everywhere!
Happy Post Super Bowl!
Catch your breath after that thriller? Get the Doritos dust off your hands yet?
The Super Bowl gets its own full wrap-up which you can read here. “Putting the Super in Super Bowl.”
But first, you think Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes could knock those balloons out of the sky with that gun of his?
U.S. Shoots Down Another “Object” Over Lake Huron, After Knocking Out Objects Over Canada and Alaska
Three days, three objects knocked out of the sky by the U.S military. On Sunday, a high-altitude object first spotted Saturday over Montana met its end above Lake Huron in Michigan, thanks to an F-16. This came a day after U.S. fighter pilots on the orders of Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, shot down an “object” flying above Canada. On Friday, an object was shot down over Alaskan waters. The Pentagon says the object posed a threat to aviation traffic.
What were they? Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Sunday he’d been briefed by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and the military thinks they were balloons, though much smaller than the first balloon shot down. The White House shot that theory down, saying it’s too early to “categorize” what the objects are.
JUST IN – Pentagon does not know to what keeps these "objects" aloft, unknown propulsion systems.
"We're calling them objects, not balloons, for a reason," says U.S. Air Force General Glen VanHerck.
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) February 13, 2023
ABC News reports Sunday’s object was “octagonal in structure, unmanned and traveling at 20,000 feet.” The Chinese spy balloon that worked its way across the U.S.A was at 60,000 feet.
The object has been downed by pilots from the US Air Force and National Guard. Great work by all who carried out this mission both in the air and back at headquarters. We’re all interested in exactly what this object was and it’s purpose. 1/ https://t.co/LsjwtjntCv
— Rep. Elissa Slotkin (@RepSlotkin) February 12, 2023
So who sent them? Amazingly, the NATO Commanding General is not yet ruling out extraterrestrials. Which begged a rib-tickler of a question:
https://twitter.com/JerseyBoyInZona/status/1624938308869705728?s=20&t=apIikW8bTSz8ZSaKLTBXlg
Boosted Surveillance or BS?
Why is the U.S. suddenly shooting down objects after letting a massive Chinese spy balloon wander the U.S. like Guy Fieri doing a season of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives?
Are we suddenly under a serious probing effort by our enemies? Or have these things been flying over us a long while, and they’re only now getting taken out because of the embarrassment over the spy balloon?
An anonymous military official “attributed the rise in the sightings to boosted surveillance capabilities by the military and not a rush of new foreign objects flying over American airspace.”
“Northern Command has adjusted the parameters of their radar capabilities in a way that they can see more than they could before,” the official told ABC News.
Our capabilities increased in a couple of days? Do we really think Biden would have blasted three objects out of the sky this weekend had that first Chinese spy balloon not been spotted by a civilian? Especially given how flip he has been about the incursion not being a serious “breach.”
Here’s why the Administration and DoD’s incompetence and obsession with political optics is so troublesome: You remember the terrorist bombing in Afghanistan during the disastrous pullout that killed 13 of our finest? A huge blow to American prestige. Those Marines should never have been in that position. The White House and DoD looked awful and incompetent.
What happens? A couple days later, the U.S. announced we’d conducted a drone strike on a would-be terrorist bomber. Change the narrative. “See how tough we are?” Turns out they killed a modest innocent taxi driver and seven children.
Every single action taken by the White House and Department of Defense during the past two weeks when it comes to these incursions may well be just and legit. But their credibility is so shot, it’s impossible not to wonder.
Not for nuthin’, but NORAD announced it will be conducting an air defense exercise over Washington, DC today. Some of those fat cats can use all the exercise they can get.
What? More Classified Biden Documents? This Time in Boston?
This kind of snuck into the news at the end of last week. Seems the National Archives got hold of further boxes of material Biden was holding onto … this time in Boston.
Emails released under FOIA show the National Archives wanted documents that were being held up in Beantown.
“Please ensure that the boxes in your office in Boston remain secure in a locked space and are not accessed by anyone,” National Archives official Gary Stern wrote on Nov. 7 to Biden attorneys Patrick Moore and Bob Bauer.
CNN reported in January that Moore had shipped some boxes to his Boston office from the Penn Center before discovering the classified documents at the center. They claimed it wasn’t believed classified information was in the boxes. But the email suggests the National Archives was suspicious and wanted the boxes locked up tight. And how many times did the White House say no more classified documents were to be had … only to have them turn up like dandelions in spring?
It’s also interesting to note that the National Archives made a similar request to Trump and he obliged. The FBI still raided his home as if were El Chapo’s summer pad. Do you hear of any raids in Boston?
Meanwhile, PBS asked Biden about the classified document scandal. Biden hemmed, hawed and said he’d been instructed by his lawyers not to talk about it. Other than to throw his aides under the bus, and say he thought the documents were “things from 1974 and stray papers.”
Along The Stream
The Stream‘s John Zmirak weighs in on the Federal goverment’s latest astounding assault on religious liberty: “The FBI Targeting of Traditional Catholics Recalls … The Inquisition.”
Dr. Michael Brown has “A Message for the Church of England.”