Day: February 5, 2023

Manufacturing Consent: Pentagon Says Chinese Balloons Have Traveled Over the US Before

Ms. Cat
Or just manufacture your own crisis with your own balloons!

Pentagon Says Chinese Balloons Have Traveled Over the US Before

The official said that Chinese balloons “transited the continental United States briefly at least three times during the prior administration and once that we know of at the beginning of this administration, but never for this duration of time.”

Fox News reported that at least one Chinese balloon flew over Florida and Texas during the Trump administration, but President Trump and former top officials in his administration strongly denied the claim.

Later, an unnamed senior Biden administration official claimed to Fox that the balloons that transited over the US during the Trump administration were only “discovered” after he left office. “They went undetected,” the administration official said.

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‘Take your dirty hands off Turkey,’ Ankara rails against US envoy

Ms. Cat

‘Take your dirty hands off Turkey,’ Ankara rails against US envoy

On Thursday, Soylu condemned the closures as an attempt to meddle in campaigning for Turkey’s presidential and parliamentary elections, which are scheduled for 14 May. The Turkish interior minister and other officials also suggested that the Western states had issued the security warnings in order to pressure Turkey to tone down its criticism of the sacrilegious move and resolve the NATO dispute.

Video via ShanghaiEye魔都眼

Related:

Turkish minister tells US ambassador ‘Take your dirty hands off Turkey’ as sanctions sparks fly

Turkey’s parliamentary and presidential elections scheduled for May 14 are fast approaching—angry rhetoric from the Erdogan regime, designed to nationalistically rouse its core vote, is no surprise. Nor are angry interventions from US politicians who dislike the unreliability of Turkey as a Nato ally, but at the same time stop short of anything that could irretrievably wreck relations with a country crucially located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

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Brian Nelson, the US Treasury Department’s top sanctions official, visited Turkish government and private sector officials on February 2 to urge more cooperation in disrupting the flow of goods that Russia can put to use in persisting with its war on the Ukrainians.

In a speech to bankers, reported by Reuters, Nelson said a pronounced year-long rise in exports to Russia left Turkish entities ‘particularly vulnerable to reputational and sanctions risks‘, or lost access to G7 markets.

Spycraft or Not, Shootdown of Chinese Weather Balloon Using 5th-Gen Jet Looks ‘Silly’

Ms. Cat

By Ilya Tsukanov – Sputnik – 05.02.2023

A US jet destroyed a Chinese weather balloon off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday, with US officials saying the balloon had engaged in espionage as it flew over US airspace over the past several days. Beijing insists the dirigible was just a meteorological research balloon that drifted off course.

Spycraft or Not, Shootdown of Chinese Weather Balloon Using 5th-Gen Jet Looks ‘Silly’

China is laughing at the Biden Admin! FYI, they’re launching more spy ballons! 😉

The Pentagon’s Balloon Floats On

Ms. Cat

It is just as well that Antony “Guardrails” Blinken has called off his long-scheduled visit to Beijing, which was due to begin Tuesday. It would have been his first since taking over at State and the first by a secretary of state in four years. But Blinken would not have got any guardrails in place or built any exit ramps, which he seems to consider his highest calling. Let us wonder, parenthetically, if our Tony wasn’t meant to be a transportation engineer.

Patrick Lawrence: The Pentagon’s Balloon Floats On

Privacy nightmare: FTC claims Drug Discount App GoodRx was leaked user data to Facebook and Google

Ms. Cat1 Comment

FTC alleges that GoodRx, a drug discount site, has sold user data to Facebook. The Masters of the Universe are known for their insatiable desire for all personal information, but medical data is especially valuable for advertising purposes and in other ventures.

Privacy nightmare: FTC claims Drug Discount App GoodRx was leaked user data to Facebook and Google

H/T: Steve Lehto

This is disturbing because it means that the pharmacies are giving people’s information to GoodRX! You don’t have to enter your personal information on the GoodRX site (unless they’re using information from cookies)—you just print out the discount coupon to give to your pharmacist! The pharmacies should be penalized, as well!

Ted Cruz Goes After ‘Woke’ Microsoft Over Xbox Power Saving Settings Update

Ms. Cat

If you haven’t been living under a rock for the past couple of years, you will be familiar with the concept of the anti-“woke” culture war the Republican Party grows and farms for its own purposes. This isn’t to say there aren’t real cultural conflicts we need to work out as a country, but that doesn’t change the simple fact that much of what you hear about in the press is specifically cultivated by one party or another to generate headlines and outrage for the purposes of votes and campaign contributions.

Ted Cruz Goes After ‘Woke’ Microsoft Over Xbox Power Saving Settings Update