ewsieg

Punt huh? Ironic that you were still so close.

Not 'at least this time', but 'at least at this time.' Call me wishy/washy, but I want more of the story before I get to making a definitive statement especially on a developing story.

I certainly didn't mean to say there was no truth to it, but I fully admit I am taking the information with a grain of salt, at least at this time.

I was referring to the dem talking points we saw yesterday, that it's silly to even take this seriously (china already has satellites, tiktok, google earth). Even though on the other hand the admin folks were pointing to not sending Blinken to show they are taking this seriously. As for the Pentagon, we have always seen leaks from the Pentagon no matter who is president. Sometimes against the administration (hence likely someone that sides with the other party) and sometimes leaks that may have been directed by the administration (hence likely someone that sides with the party in power). So yes, i'm sure there are a few democrats that might leak something, just as i'm sure there are a few republicans that would do the same.

If not simply not fully buying anything the democrats say until I hear more of the story just because the republicans are idiots makes me partisan, I guess I am. Absolutely not and I'm guessing you didn't see my other post either that pointed out the vast majority of DoD are professional and dedicated workers that take their jobs seriously, so the idea that the entirety of the DoD couldn't identify balloons under Trump for no other reason than Trump is POTUS, but the same 99.9% of the DoD, minus a few folks in leadership is so incredible under Biden that they not only identified this balloon but issues that weren't detected by themselves when Trump was in charge fails the smell test.

I'm not saying it was made up, although I guess I wouldn't put it past a few loners in the DoD and a reporter that wants the clicks. But as you just said, it's a fresh story. Fresh stories tend to have information that isn't always accurate or at least full context.

Yeah, "High level sources inside of the Intelligence department" always prove to be 100% accurate for journalists.

You clearly didn't understand my post. It was in response to the idea that because Trump was president, DoD was so inept that it didn't even know about balloons during his admin, but suddenly became competent again once Biden was president. As such I joked that Milley finally 'saw the light' and became competent the day Biden was sworn in. Do you really think they really thought they could hit the balloon? Your second paragraph is spot on, there was nothing serious about their response. Biden choose not to shoot it down so they reacted by going the opposite way. No actual attempt at thought, just partisan bullshit. But in my both sidsin' way, the talking points I heard out of the dem party, while sounding a little more reasonable on it's face, were equally partisan. Some of those talking points were mirrored on this site in how it was downplayed, which helps mock the right for getting upset about it. Don't the average idiots know China has satellites which are so much better? You don't think China has heard of Google Earth? TicTok anyone? You all seriously think they can gain any Intel from a balloon? No true idea about the risk either, but it helps support the narrative of their side.

What did I say was made up? And yeah, I both sides the shit out of everything because I want to understand each side. For 6-7 years now I’ve “both sides” everything as I’ve made it clear which side was worse. 95% of what all you partisans complain about the GOP, I absolutely agree with you on. But because I question what the narrative out of anyone with a D next to them, I’m just “both sidsin”.

Biden absolutely deserves credit for recognizing the lone issue with our nearly 3 million employees defense department was its leader. Austin came in, kept his eye on radar reports, identified and then tracked it to SC where once he had permission he loaded up a missile, fueled up his F-22, and flew the mission to take it out.

My only point is that much of the core of the FBI, Intelligence agencies, our defense, are built around career men and women that have worked in those fields for decades. Without a doubt, putting a political appointee to head or oversee an organization can damage it, but the core folks are likely people trying to do their best job. So an argument built on partisan beliefs that of course these same departments might have been so inept just because Trump was POTUS, but somehow they magically figured out how to do their jobs once your guy is in office is a little silly. By no means do I think these 'shoot it down' politicians that came out this weekend to try and show they were tough on China had any reasonable argument and were grandstanding. Conversely though, the 'OMG, it's just a balloon, what are you going to do, shoot it with your six shooter, everything was done perfectly' politicians are shooting from the hip themselves. I'm not going to pretend I know what the right choice was and I'm willing to believe that informed people weighed in on the situation and the president made his call on that. But I certainly would like to know what we think China was trying to do, rather than simply join a side based on who is currently in office, mock the other side, and move on.

This is probably true, 2019 - January 2021 Mark Milley was the most corrupt, seditious chairman of the JCOS. Luckily he had a come to Jesus moment around Noon on January 20th 2021 and has been the most transparent, best chairman of the JCOS we've ever had in this country.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/05/politics/chinese-spy-balloons-trump-administration/index.html So there were three balloons under Trumps admin, but they weren't discovered until Biden was in office? I know most of you won't question that, but that seems a little fishy to me. Either someone is lying about it in order to make 'shoot it down immediately' crowd look foolish or even worse, maybe we didn't have any idea about this one until civilians saw it and questioned it.

I saw a report stating we were able jam any additional intelligence. I’m not going to completely buy that, but I’m not going to write that off either. I’d like to think we could/should have taken care of it before it got over land if that’s the real reason why it wasn’t shut down earlier.

Found a new mock draft simulator, seems legit.

An overall sentiment I see from the Bullwark folks is that if you want to beat Trump, you have to go at him. Sitting back and hoping everyone forms around you isn't going to work. The second part of that is if you agree with this and you're going against Trump, do you try and out crazy him, or do you simply stand up to him? I see no reason to believe anyone on the GOP side that would try and stand up to him without going the 'out crazy' route currently, but I just would think if someone consistently calls out Trump on the campaign trail and than laughs/mocks Trump's comebacks, it could change a lot of Trump diehards fast.

The MAGA's I know tend to think he's a liar and a cheat, and thus the perfect weapon against all the other liars and cheaters they politically disagree with.

https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/elections/2023/02/01/nikki-haley-announce-presidential-run-mid-february/11122023002/ Looks like Haley will be the first to officially get in the ring with Trump.

Not just a concern for DeSantis, but for the whole party. IMO, not much they can do but deal with it and take their licks because it was their ineptitude which allowed the party to get to this point.

I have stated that I think Trump can't win the GOP nomination. That said, The Bullwark started out by a small group of Never Trumpers and built their base largely on folks like me (conservative Never Trumpers). I would fully expect a result like that from them. I certainly hope it represents the whole of the GOP now though.

Very possible this has nothing to do with Ukraine, but interesting as we get news that Putin is immobilizing more troops and making more purchases from the likes of NK and Iran. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/blast-heard-military-plant-irans-central-city-isfahan-state-media-2023-01-28/

Well, this is where I think you see a big disagreement from the GOP in that they point to rural communities that at one point sustained themselves, until market forces depleted that and now they are without resources and subjected into lower economic status themselves. They are predominantly white, so how is this possible if race is the deciding factor on everything? And in the end, while both sides argue whether it is racism or classism that is the true issue, it seems to be common steps could be taken that would help out both.

And i'm not sure if it's racist or sexist to say this, but I think the main reason for the disparity in race and sex is obedience. Women tend to be more obedient than men. Asians tend to be obedient, thus their minuscule numbers. When every media source and one major political party tells every black man that getting pulled over for 5 over puts you in a 50/50 situation, idk, maybe that has something to do with it. And point taken that real police issues that have occurred over the years, such as planting evidence, roughing up suspects, and other tactics that have been done, in higher numbers in urban areas, eroded credibility too. In no way am I trying to discredit those legitimate facts, just like the statistical facts Lee posted.

My only point with the absolute numbers is that it's happening to all races, which if all color and creed of Police are trained to systematically hunt and kill Black people, they are performing very poorly. Add in the fact that urban areas are policed more, means more interaction is likely. More interaction and it makes sense more bad outcomes can occur. That alone does not mean it's racist to police urban areas more, as often it's the minorities in that area that are calling for more safety. I absolutely agree that we should be looking at policing in an entirely different light. But on the other side, I don't see the benefit of painting everything as racist, which is part of the reason why black man are the most likely to run from cops, vastly increasing the odds of a violent encounter.

So far I haven't seen anyone dispute Lee's point. But if Lee's point is the only number we should use, than it's clear racial profiling is being done by Asians against the rest of us, albeit Black people at a higher rate than myself (white).