Spy v Spy 🌻 🌻 🌻

🎈 🎈 🎈 🎈 So we finally shot down the Chinese balloon on Saturday, waiting until it had cleared the east coast to ensure that no one on the ground was conked on the head by any of its debris.  It’s not clear how much revelatory information the Chinese government obtained from the balloon’s flyover as the Defense Department claims that it blocked the transmission of data from the balloon back to mother China, but one thing is for certain,  Xi’s crowd managed to trigger a whole lot of discord here in the US, giving the usual set of Republicans including Ohio’s Hillbilly Senator JD Vance who tweeted a picture of himself sitting in his front yard with a rifle pointed at the sky presumably aimed at the far, far out of reach balloon,  another reason to strike out at “weak” “China loving” President Biden. It wasn’t just Republicans who squawked, Montana’s Democratic Senator Jon Tester who is up for reelection in a Trump plus 16 state also criticized the amount of time that the balloon was allowed to hover over Montana’s nuclear missile silos, a sign that Tester who hasn’t announced whether he plans to seek reelection, probably is running, a good thing for Democrats since despite Montana’s red status, Tester, a working farmer, is popular in the state.  As to the balloon, it turns out that it wasn’t a one-off, apparently the Chinese have sent a few others over parts of the US in recent years, one early in the Biden administration and a few more back when Trump was president.  That last revelation was a surprise to Trump, not that it shut him up, and to Mark Esper his former Secretary of Defense.  To prove that they are not making the news about earlier balloons up the Biden team has offered to provide some of the Trump administration defense team, not Trump, just his former team, with a confidential briefing. Continuing to encourage the Qsters and other likeminded crazies to take up arms against the government probably caused Trump’s invitation to get lost in the mail.  Officials have also offered to brief Congressional leaders about the classified documents found at Trump and Biden’s residences and offices.  To the extent that they reveal the nature of those documents, it’s fair to assume that given the volume of his stash and leaked information about what that stash may have contained Trump has more to worry about than Biden whose home was searched by the FBI late last week, a search that didn’t turn anything up since, as promised, he appears to have turned up everything found there.  Dotting “I’s” and crossing “T’s” the FBI is expected to do a similar search of Mike Pence’s abode.

NY’s Third:  Despite the balloon madness, George “many names” Santos is still in the news because of course.  Oddly enough while soliciting money for his campaign, Santos bragged about being one of the producers of mega flop musical, Spider Man Turn Off the Dark, odd because most people don’t brag about their financial failures especially while seeking money, why not pick a wildly successful musical instead?  Also, Santos is now being accused of sexual harassment by a volunteer in his DC Congressional office who had been told that his status would be converted to paid employee as soon as the proper paperwork was processed, in and of itself an ethics lapse. The accuser, a sometime journalist named Derek Myers who previously got into trouble for surreptitiously taping another politician, has filed a police report and a House ethics complaint alleging that Santos made an unwanted sexual advance towards him during a private encounter in his office.  During their one-on-one time Santos asked Myers if he like him, had a Grindr profile, hardly a Kosher interview question even for someone who is only Jew ish. Despite the promise that he was about to be granted employee status, Myers was then rejected for the spot, possibly because Santos found out about his history of taping conversations but maybe also because Santos was disappointed about that Grindr thing.  Santos is also one of the many Republicans in the House who last week was seen sporting an assault rifle gun lapel pin.  Those pins were handed out by Republican Representative Andrew Clyde who says that while he’s pleased that the pins triggered those lefty Dems, they were really meant to remind people of the importance of the Second Amendment as if anyone needs to be reminded given the record number of mass shootings committed during January.

Terms of Endearment: Cancun Ted Cruz has introduced legislation that would limit Senators to serving two terms in the Senate.  Naturally, the Texas Republican is currently running for a third term.  Eighty-nine-year-old California Senator Diane Feinstein has served in the Senate since 1992 and still hasn’t announced her expected retirement plans but 82-year-old former Speaker Nancy Pelosi who has served in the House since 1987 says that though she’ll support Feinstein should she decide to run for reelection, an easy statement to make since she knows DiFi won’t be running.  Pelosi is endorsing Adam Schiff to replace Feinstein.  That’s a big get for Schiff and unusual for Pelosi, who when she led the Democratic caucus refrained from making primary endorsements.  Even without Pelosi’s endorsement, Schiff’s campaign coffers have been filling up, so far with $20 million in the bank he’s ahead of Katie Porter, the other announced seeker of the California seat but Porter is a top small dollar fundraiser so her ability to fund what will be a high dollar campaign shouldn’t be discounted.  Neither should the US economy.  Despite warnings that a recession was imminent, we appear to be making a soft landing, econ speak for doing better than expected.  Friday’s employment data was exceptionally strong, more job gains than predicted and a lower unemployment rate, that may be hard to believe for those in the tech industry who’ve been affected by recent job cuts proving again that though tech like banking gets lots of attention in the press and on the coasts, most people do not work in either industry.  The good news is that our economy is doing better than expected especially compared to the rest of the world.  The bad news is that the debt ceiling, unlike the Chinese balloon, still looms and some Republicans appear to want to do what they can to crater it, maybe just to make Joe look bad, and those who don’t may well lack the ability to stop them.