I’m just spit-balling here, not more than that. Work with me on this silliness.
What if this story (from PRC State media) is actually true: ??
Meaning, something that seems like #SpyBalloons are drifting over #China
MORE
2/
If I were writing a movie script, my opening fast/cut scenes would depict “#SpyBalloons ” causing panic in Canada, the USA…and then in China. Cross accusations would heighten tensions between East & West.
Cut to Scene 2 --MORE
3/
Scene: a #Russian dictator is in his war room, going over plans to celebrate the 1st anniversary of the “liberation” of #Ukraine. He asks a General, “When do we start launching the rest of the diversionary balloons? Are the ones for Straits ready?”
Cut to Scene 3 MORE
4/
Scene: U.S. Congressman shouting in a press conference, “We are spending billions of tax-payer $$s sending tanks, missiles & other armaments to Kyiv for an endless war with Russia, but Biden can’t keep damned Chinese Communist balloons out of our skies!”

Cut to Scene 4 MORE
5/
Scene: Prime Minister’s residence, Tokyo: Foreign Minister briefing PM, pouring over satellite images. FM tells PM, “We can’t be certain, of course, but this row of 3 balloons over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands appear to be from China's Hainan region."
Cut to Scene 5
MORE
6/
Scene: closed door session UN Security Council. Cross accusations & shouting about who is sending balloons to spy on whom.
Cut to Scene 6, Feb24: #Russian President & staff watch live vid of Russian tanks pouring across the border towards Kharkiv and Kyiv...
MORE
7/
...with bombing sorties ahead of them “softening things up.” Russian President raises a shot of vodka to a general, chuckles & says, “Thanks for the balloons, Boris.”
Laughter. Clinking glasses.

Cut to Scene 6 MORE
8/
Scene: Back at fighting at UN Sec Council. Russian Ambassador is listening as China, Japan, Canada and US trade insults & accusations. His phone pings. Text is a URL link sent from Moscow.
Ambassador puts ear plugs into the phone, clicks on URL, and grins.
MORE
9/
Cut to the URL that is making the Russian Ambassador grin:

Good thing I'm not writing intel briefings, or movie scripts. Just spit-balling...
Or this...prescient?

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More from @Laurie_Garrett

Feb 14
Amen, Sisters.
“I see my male counterparts — they’re also abused, but not abused for their bodies, their genital parts. If they’re attacked, they’re just targeted for their political views. When a woman is attacked, she’s attacked about her body parts.”
washingtonpost.com/investigations…
“Heavily partisan pseudo-journalists & disinfo agents trigger pile-ons against particular journalists...to discredit them. Ultimately, they discredit the journalist not just w/their audience but also to their employers, who in the worst cases have pushed them out of their jobs.”
“If you don’t respond to [the smears and online attacks], the lie told a million times becomes a fact,” she said. “It’s about power. And the people who held power in the old world [legacy institutions] don’t understand the power of the new world.”
Read 8 tweets
Feb 10
In coming days the UK and much of Europe is going to suffer DEEP freeze due to a sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) event. Warnings are out all over Europe due to a dramatic shift in atmospheric air moving from the North Pole. MORE
news.sky.com/story/uk-weath…
2/SSWs are tied to #GlobalWarming weakening of the #PolarVortex system that clockwise circles the North Pole, holding subzero air over the #Arctic. Severe SSWs reverse the spin, shift warm ocean currents & slam the No Hemisphere w/deep freeze air.
MORE
washingtonpost.com/weather/2023/0…
3/Irish forecasters say that a SSW will slam Ireland next week.
In a SSW stratospheric winds, "reverse frm westerly to easterly & the temps in the stratosphere over polar regions rise significantly in just a few days."
Pole gets hotter; Europe colder.
MORE
irishtimes.com/ireland/2023/0…
Read 6 tweets
Feb 4
I don't think we can rule out mega-error as the source of the #ChineseSpyBalloon . Whether it was launched for "research" or "intelligence" purposes, it may never have been intended for Montana skies.
Here's my thinking (thread).
In the last week of January China --
MORE
2/
...from Beijing to Siberia, experienced the coldest weather ON RECORD, with temperatures hitting -63 F in the far north. The frigid Polar Vortex air moved east, hit ocean, warmer air, and soared in an atmospheric river north towards Alaska/Yukon.
MORE
washingtonpost.com/weather/2023/0…
3/ On Jan 31 that cold front fell over #Bozeman, and wind chill temp fell to -23F. Since, it has warmed, winds calmed, & now it is 41 F.
Any gas-filled container launched into the atmosphere from China in late January would have been battered by that frigid air flow.
MORE
Read 8 tweets
Jan 30
The @WHO Executive Board is meeting in Geneva right now, with a very full plate:
- #pandemic security
- dearth of diagnostics
- universal healthcare
- multibillion $ budget shortfall
- ongoing fights over patented drug & vaccine access for all
ghtcoalition.org/blog/who-eb-20…
Opening speech by @WHO DG @DrTedros
"As we enter the 4th year of the #pandemic, there is no doubt we are in a far better situation now than we were when the #Omicron wave was at its peak.
But...In the past 8 wks >170,000 people have lost their lives to #COVID19 ."
MORE
cont.
"And that’s just the reported deaths; we know the actual number is much higher.
We can’t control the virus, but we can do more to address the vulnerabilities in populations & health systs.
That means vaccinating 100% of the most at-risk groups;..."
MORE
Read 4 tweets
Jan 27
LIVE now: the #NSABB is meeting to discuss the safety of work on pathogens: biosecurity, gain-of-function, dual-use research, counter-measures & vaccine R&D. W/some #Republicans claiming #SARSCoV2 arose from NIH-sponsored GOF work, this is a hot potato.
videocast.nih.gov/livew.asp?live…
Continueing
Continued
Read 6 tweets
Jan 20
Lots of @WSJ & @elonmusk & #GOP chatter today about the US debt ceiling and the "need" to drastically slash federal social services, and raise taxes on poor and middle classes. Musk claims taxing billionaires won't "put a dent" in the national debt.

Let's look, shall we?

MORE
2/
"FORTUNE 500 companies represent two-thirds of the U.S. GDP with $16.1 trillion in revenues (up 17%), $1.84 trillion in profits (up 114%), $37 trillion in market value (up 13%), and employ 29.7 million people worldwide."
- from @FortuneMagazine

BUT...

MORE
3/
But corporate taxes have steadily plummeted -- even for companies that had record windfalls due to #COVID19 #pandemic related earnings.

americanprogress.org/article/these-…
Read 13 tweets

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