THE SHOW NOTES: The Super Secret Spy Balloon, Attacking Karine Jean-Pierre, & Wasted Campaign Dollars
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HEADLINE: Jobs report shows increase of 517,000 in January, crushing estimates, as unemployment rate hit 53-year low - CNBC
GO READ THIS: The State Where the GOP Would Rather Lose Than Change - Politico
Clip of the day:
Bonus clip:
Spy Baloon
The Pentagon is tracking a Chinese high-altitude surveillance balloon whose flight path will carry it over a number of sensitive sites in the continental United States. The balloon’s trajectory is well above flight paths and is not considered a threat to airliner traffic.
Why this (doesn’t) matter: While the balloon is able to collect data, most experts believe it is not collecting data that wouldn’t be available in other forms. For instance, Chinese spy satellites are in orbit that would be able to collect the same data the balloon is collecting.
Shoot it down: A senior US defense official told CNN the President had been advised to not shoot down the balloon for fear of debris causing harm to civilians.
China responds: The Chinese are claiming the balloon entered US airspace accidentally claiming it is a “civilian airship used for research, mainly meteorological, purposes.”
NEW: Joe Biden canceled Secretary of State Antony Blinken's trip to Beijing today over the incident.
Attacking Karine Jean-Pierre
The Washington Post (of all places) has a blistering takedown of Karine Jean-Pierre’s refusal to comment on the Biden document scandal. “I would refer you to the White House Counsel’s Office” is a line Jean-Pierre used eight times when the news first broke and a staggering 25 times earlier this week. Here are the two paragraphs that matter from The Post:
Since then, however, Jean-Pierre’s attempts to skirt even tangential elements of the story during her near-daily televised briefings has exacerbated an “optics” issue for the White House, with her opaque statements raising suspicions of stonewalling for some critics.
Even otherwise friendly sources have suggested the strategy is counterproductive. “Biden and the White House seemingly have violated every precept — speed, transparency, contrition — of crisis communications,” wrote former Obama White House adviser David Axelrod last week.
Wasted Campaign Dollars
Democrats have identified their latest bright red state to waste tens of millions of campaign dollars on: Mississippi. Despite Republicans owning the governor’s mansion since 2004 and an incumbent that won by 16 points in 2020, Democrats are hyping Brandon Presley, a public service commissioner and a distant relative of Elvis Presley to take on the Republican Tate Reeves.
Backstory: Democrats poured $57 million in the final quarter of Jaime Harrison’s unsuccessful attempt to dethrone Lindsey Graham in 2020. In a similar move, Democrats flooded Beto O’Rourke with $38 million in the third quarter of 2018 in his failed attempt to take out Ted Cruz.
The rest of the news:
CBS's Tony Romo acknowledges microscope, recent criticism on NFL games - SBJ
Confidence in police practices drops to a new low: POLL - ABC
AOC on talking to GOP's Gosar during McCarthy speaker battle: I'm 'uncomfortable' serving with terrorists - Fox News
Rep. Ocasio-Cortez blasts Republicans for vote to oust Ilhan Omar from committee - NBC
Is Trump Way Up or Way Down? - Yahoo
Emergency measures enacted as ‘epic’ blast of cold air moves into the Northeast - CNN
Trump campaign staff on 2020 election lies: ‘fan the flame’ - AP News
Woman in body bag gasps for air as funeral home staff discover she’s alive, report says - Hastings Tribune
Watch the Tense Moments That Caused Dust-Up Between CNN’s Kaitlan Collins and Don Lemon - Mediaite
Our Political Parties Are Struggling - WSJ (paywall)
Tweets that caught my eye:
Market snapshot:
Unfortunately the Chinese spy balloon is actually a huge deal and not to be taken lightly. What the devices on board can collect is not significant. What is hugely significant is the US’s reaction to their penetration of US airspace. The balloon was first detected in Montana over our nuclear Minutemen missile sites. Consider for a moment what could happen if this balloon was carrying a nuclear bomb. And not just what damage it might be able to do to our silos. The electro-magnetic pulse alone would destroy every un-shielded electronic device for hundreds of miles around, depending on the size of the device. Our electric grid is not shielded, and we would lose power. Our vehicles are not shielded. And if the balloon was inserted just prior to a Chinese attack on the US, it could destroy any Minutemen missiles we attempted to launch. What will we do if next time there are a dozen, or a hundred balloons that appear over our major cities? The world just got a lot more dangerous.
Politico will write what you want them to write for enough cash. The analysis of Arizona is wrong. It was Maricopa County election malfeasance and the abortion issue that put the worthless liberal Katie Hobbs over Kari Lake. Sure Lake was polarizing to some, but the establishment never-Trumper Uniparty GOP are really just Democrats in different clothing. Trump destroyed 8 of 10 GOP never-Trumpers in the primaries. Many MAGA and MAGA-lite candidates did well in other elections. The Democrats spent like crazy in AZ, and revved up the upset female vote. So in the end, it was the conservative Christian right that gave AZ to the Dems.