Hear no drone, see no drone, speak no drone

Hear no drone, see no drone, speak no drone

I don’t think Trump likes Canada. It is true that prime minister Trudeau is a dumpster fire. Trudeau is a weak ineffectual leader whose unpopularity is likely to lead to a regime change in Canada. What he did to the truckers who protested his shutdowns during Covid was criminal. Trump is threatening Canada with 25% tariffs for lax enforcement of its borders allowing illegal entry and fentanyl. Yet neither is nowhere as serious as the southern border. I think Trump just likes being a bully. When he imposed tariffs in his first administration, Canada retaliated. It will retaliate this time as well. The government of Ontario has threatened to cut off the flow of oil into the states. Since 60 percent of the crude we import is from Canada, Trump will certainly take notice. I think this is called “cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face” – or something like that.

Now what about the drones? We can dismiss that the drones are a security risk because they are flying over New Jersey. What are they spying on? Commuters to New York? Commuters to Philly? Maybe it is Kansas State spying on Rutgers’ practices in preparation for the highly anticipated Rate Bowl in Phoenix. What is most disturbing is the total lack of information coming from the Biden Administration. Early on I had respect for John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman. He is a retired navy admiral and seemed like a straight shooter. He was one of the few people in the administration willing to talk to Fox. Kirby unlike Karine Jean-Pierre seemed to be sincere and competent. But Kirby has lost all credibility in this dronegate. 

Kirby has said that the administration does not know what is going on with the drones but knows that they do not present a danger. He said “We have no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or a public safety threat, or have a foreign nexus.” What? How would they know that if they do not know anything about the drones? The “foreign nexus” was, I guess, in response to New Jersey Congressman Jeff Van Drew’s remark that there was an Iranian mothership off the coast piloting the drones. I didn’t think Van Drew was serious – maybe he was thinking about the Led Zeppelin album of the same name –  but obviously the Pentagon thought him serious when they trotted out another spokesman to categorically deny the assertion. Kirby then said that many if not most of the sightings were of small piloted aircraft and not drones.  Kirby said “Using very sophisticated electronic detection technologies provided by federal authorities, we have not been able to, and neither have state or local law enforcement authorities, corroborate any of the reported visual sightings. To the contrary, upon review of available imagery, it appears that many of the reported sightings are actually manned aircraft that are being operated lawfully.” Again this comment was met with derision by New Jersey state and local officials who said that Kirby was calling all of them liars for saying that the sightings were off drones. Me thinks he thinks that we are all fools. Kirby is the one looking like a liar.

Trump of course had a very different response saying “Can this really be happening without our government’s knowledge. I (don’t) think so! Let the public know, and now. Otherwise, (shoot) them down!” Leave it to Trump to say what is on the minds of the people not associated with the Biden Administration. What I don’t understand is why New Jersey is whining to the federal government. I bet that if the sightings were over Oak Ridge, that if the feds did not take action, the state would. If it happened in Georgia, we would call our wildlife rangers and say that hunters were using drones to spot deer. They would immediately shoot them down. So why does New Jersey keep whining? Is whining part of the democrats DNA? Why doesn’t it have its helicopters or planes follow the drones until they come down and confiscate one of them? Or, following Trump’s suggestion, have its air national guard just shoot one down? If it indeed is a civilian drone piloted by kids in their backyards, then we will know that they are not a threat. 

This is all too reminiscent of the stonewalling about the Chinese spy balloon. Remember when the first Biden spokeswoman, Jean Psaki, said that in contrast to the Trump administration that Biden’s administration would share “accurate information with the American people” and “bring transparency and truth back to the government to share the truth, even when it’s hard to hear.” So where are the “truth and transparency” now, Jen?

Of course, there are two issues here. First, if the administration knows what is going on, then why don’t they tell us? Second, if the administration does not know what is going on, then we are all in deep do-do – at least until January 20,