65 responses to “Scattershots – 5feb23 (updated 12feb23)”

1. 

   Michael Kesti

   05 February 2023

   I believe that the balloon was primarily about China demonstrating how weak and dependent the US has become.

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2. 

   Gregory

   05 February 2023

   Primarily? You know that… how?
   I don’t have a clue about the primary motivations of the Chinese leadership.

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3. 

   Bill Tozer

   05 February 2023

   Motives aside, I do find it disturbing that the balloon was allowed to linger over the Mainland US for days. Days. Four months ago another CHINESE balloon crashed outside the Hawaiian Islands. If it was a Russian balloon, you can bet your bottom dollar that the response would have been different. Act of war and all that jazz.
   ———
   A view from the ground, kind of light hearted. Those damn Montanans. Don’t look up.
   ‘The Chinese Spy Balloon Over My House’
   Walter Kirn on the floating intruder Montanans weren’t supposed to notice.
   https://www.thefp.com/p/the-chinese-spy-balloon-over-my-house

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4. 

   scenes

   05 February 2023

   “One of the more intriguing and scary test purposes for the balloon could easily have been to see how easy it would be to float EMP nuclear devices over the American mainland.”
   I doubt that balloons go high enough for a particularly effective EMP.

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5. 

   Michael Kesti

   05 February 2023

   Gregory 05Feb2023 at 12:37 PM
   Please read carefully and observe that I said, “I believe…”

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6. 

   Gregory

   05 February 2023

   mk 303
   So, saying “I believe in little green men from Mars” is AOK?

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7. 

   Bill Tozer

   05 February 2023

   scenes @ 2:50 pm
   Maybe a bio-weapon. The whole thing (assuming motives) is to see how we would react/respond. While not in charge, I would have used the guns on our fighter aircraft, not a sidewinder missile. But, that just me. Would have left the balloon more intact. War games, spy vs spy. Scramble theirs, scramble ours.
   Look up in the Sky! Its a Dirigible.

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8. 

   Randy

   05 February 2023

   To me it looked like “China Joe” pointing at the sky with a tear in his eye saying “Look somebody lost their balloon! They must be really sad…”

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9. 

   Bill Tozer

   05 February 2023

   From a conversation over at the Sandbox.
   ‘Chinese Spy Balloons Flew Over U.S. Under Trump But Were Only ‘Discovered After’ Trump Left White House: Report’
   This information was discovered after the [Trump] administration left,” the official said. “They went undetected. Two things can be true at once: this happened and it wasn’t detected.”
   https://www.dailywire.com/news/chinese-spy-balloons-flew-over-u-s-under-trump-but-were-only-discovered-after-trump-left-white-house-report

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10. 

    Michael Kesti

    05 February 2023

    Gregory 05Feb2023 at 03:19 PM
    Saying “I believe in little green men from Mars” is acceptable in the sense that expressions of opinions are always acceptable. One doesn’t have to accept others’ opinions and may argue against them but, while it remains a nominally free country, yes, their expression is AOK.

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11. 

    scenes

    05 February 2023

    “Maybe a bio-weapon.”
    Probably best to leave that to FedEx as a delivery system, although the Soviets had refrigerated cruise missiles with dispersal systems.
    Generally, it seems to me that biological warfare is the real threat right now, at least short of a full nuclear exchange. Of course you can always explain away the research facilities as something else (like the Ukrainian ones). I expect that most of the tech is dual-use in any case.
    In the meantime, any country of any size works on it’s computer/networking warfare branch all while we build-out a huge world of IoT gadgets and chuck security/privacy in favor of government and commercial surveillance. Gotta leave in those Day 0 exploits doncha know. The next avoidable emergency will consist of airgapping computers instead of locking up people in their houses.

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12. 

    Bill Tozer

    05 February 2023

    Who knows for sure. Michael Kesti’s first post rings true. A trial balloon, if you prefer. With the upcoming State Department trip to China, maybe Xi does not have all the members of theCCP government in line….like the military. Hawks in every government.
    Since the Chinese satellites have all the photographic resolution they need and continuously circle the globe, what’s up a the metal balloon? Sounds more of a political statement than a military one. A message. Definitely yanking our chain. Shooting down the balloon does not violate international law, so China has no legal defense. Maybe since prior balloons made it undetected…
    Maybe, maybe. I dunno. Timing. Certainly is working in China’s favor for their home consumption among the masses. They are quite nationalistic and racist. Like Japan. Unlike Japan, China is on the move. It’s time to quit calling them our competitor.

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13. 

    Misanthrope

    06 February 2023

    All the Chinese had to to was make a phone call to explain the situation.
    But would that have stopped all the GOP hysteria and paranoia fever?

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14. 

    Misanthrope

    06 February 2023

    I’m not a technical wizard but I imagine that we could have jammed all those frequencies that the balloon devices were transmitting on, and we would have done this after we analyzed what type of information was being transmitted, if necessary.
    The flight path of the balloon took it over Canada also but they did not seem worried. Were the Chinese using a “Drunken Fist” flight plan where the balloon appeared to wander across the open seas and stray innocently down into the US?
    It’s fun to imagine the balloon updating the firmware on all the Huawei equipment in order to track TicTok users or for other more sinister reasons.
    The balloons have also entered our air space numerous times during previous Presidencies with no hysterical backlash.
    I’m surprised that not many like the idea that it was merely a weather balloon.

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15. 

    Scott O

    06 February 2023

    “All the Chinese had to to was make a phone call to explain the situation.”
    Sure – the CCP is a straight up group of guys. Just ask Hunter or Brandon.
    “I’m surprised that not many like the idea that it was merely a weather balloon.”
    Sure – just like building a military base on Spratly was for “scientific research”.
    And building dozens of new coal-fired power plants is proof that China leads the way in combating climate change.
    And the Uyghurs enjoy spending time at the comfy summer camps the CCP have set up for them.
    What a maroon.

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16. 

    fish

    06 February 2023

    Posted by: Miss Anthrope | 06 February 2023 at 08:02 AM
    Such fellatial devotion……a rare thing, especially in …ahem ..service to the administration of such a corrupt, doddering old fool.
    Don’t forget to wipe you chin.

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17. 

    Misanthrope

    06 February 2023

    Scott,
    Do we know the flight path of the evil spy balloon?
    If so, how do we know?
    The most dangerous spy balloon made all the way from our air space in the Aleutian Islands across Canada where it was finally noticed by our Military?
    Naive?

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18. 

    Misanthrope

    06 February 2023

    Fish,
    Do you believe the spy balloon was a major threat, or is your purpose merely to provide a laugh track to the comments?

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19. 

    fish

    06 February 2023

    Posted by: Miss Anthrope | 06 February 2023 at 08:38 AM
    Fish,
    Do you believe the spy balloon was a major threat, or is your purpose merely to provide a laugh track to the comments?
    I believe there are people (like you) who are such partisan cheerleaders that Joe Biden could come over and rape your sister and you would find a way to justify it, cheer, and find a way to spin it as being good for the country!

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20. 

    Scott O

    06 February 2023

    Some fool – “The most dangerous spy balloon made all the way from our air space in the Aleutian Islands across Canada where it was finally noticed by our Military?”
    You said this, not me.
    I’m pointing out the Chi-Coms are worse liars than our own FIBBIES. How does that make me naive?

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21. 

    Misanthrope

    06 February 2023

    Scott,
    You missed the point. The military keeps track of unidentified flying objects the size of school buses that enter our airspace. They knew where it was coming from and were tracking it. If you don’t believe that then there’s no point discussing it with you.
    The GOP is only going “chicken little” on Dark Brandon to try to support the narrative that the president didn’t do enough to assure the masses that there was no threat to them because he and Hunter are in bed with the Chinese.

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22. 

    Gregory

    06 February 2023

    The balloon was at 120,000 feet… no, it isn’t that easy to detect reliably a balloon moving with the wind at that altitude with radar.
    It’s also not easy to determine what the CCP is up to… putting up one’s cartoon image of what they might be doing and believing that will not be accurate very often.

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23. 

    scenes

    06 February 2023

    “putting up one’s cartoon image of what they might be doing and believing that will not be accurate very often.”
    I’ll say.
    Plus, people seem to assume a)that it was on purpose and b)everything in China is planned by some evil mastermind brain-in-a-jar.
    High odds that some weather or military thing from the National Administration of State Secret Protection (or whatever) screwed up, everyone is too embarrassed to admit it. If it’s viewed as a real threat, warn them when you notice it, wait a day or two, shoot/shovel/shutup. It’s a stupid controversy.

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24. 

    Misanthrope

    06 February 2023

    Gregory,
    The balloon was at 60k feet.
    https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/3288543/f-22-safely-shoots-down-chinese-spy-balloon-off-south-carolina-coast/#:~:text=The%20military%20official%20gave%20some,between%2060%2C000%20and%2065%2C000%20feet.

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25. 

    scenes

    06 February 2023

    Now, a thing they could stand to do after the whole deal blows over (so to speak) is to have everyone decide on what sovereign airspace really is.
    Perfect for the UN if the UN didn’t consist of grifters and Third World diplomats hiring hookers in NYC.
    I’ve learned that the Kármán line is a thing, and ignored. 100 miles for lowest orbits? Decide on something.
    My guess is that the US is uninterested on actually-observed treaties in the matter since running a worldwide empire requires flying over folks who can’t do anything about it.

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26. 

    scenes

    06 February 2023

    I did find a picture of the men who shot down the balloon.
    https://imgur.com/VmRbJzp

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27. 

    Scott O

    06 February 2023

    Misses everything 10:59 – Hey skipper! 2 plus 2 equals 4!
    “If you don’t believe that then there’s no point discussing it with you.”
    See how that works?
    You’re fabricating BS I have never believed or implied.
    If that’s all you’re capable of, then there is certainly no point in trying to have a reasonable discussion. But that doesn’t seem to be the point with you, anyway.

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28. 

    Scott O

    06 February 2023

    scenes 11:41 – “It’s a stupid controversy.”
    True.
    But, look at all the fun memes and jokes we got out of it!

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29. 

    Gregory

    06 February 2023

    Jeffie Misanthrope 1154a
    Yes, clever fellow, the China balloon was at 60k when brought down in Atlantic coastal waters.
    It was at about 120k when tracking began, over the Aleutians.

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30. 

    Misanthrope

    06 February 2023

    Gregory,
    So, you think it would be hard to track a bus at 120,000 ft.? And that is why the military could not find it? What about the solar array and devices it was carrying?
    I guess when a ballistic missile reaches their apogee they are lost in the clouds, right?
    https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-de3ec4354d7f468653c9f9b8c575ffe8-lq

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31. 

    Bill Tozer

    06 February 2023

    China Balloon – A Layered Scandal
    “China has learned a key lesson, and it cannot be unlearned. Biden will hesitate, deflect, do almost anything to avoid confrontation with China, even allow penetration of U.S. airspace. None of this will make Taiwan feel good, or Japan, Australia, the Philippines – or any U.S. ally.”
    https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2023/02/06/china_balloon__a_layered_scandal__148823.html
    But, but, but Trump did it too! No, he did not. You made that up to cover Biden’s sorry behind.

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32. 

    Scott O

    06 February 2023

    scenes 11:41 – AGAIN ” It’s a stupid controversy.”
    Hoo boy.
    “Pentagon says it had an ‘awareness gap’ that led to failure to detect 3 Chinese balloons under Trump”
    Talk about stupid. This takes the cake. Nixon had his “what I said was at variance with the truth” but the smart boys (and whatevers) at the current Pentagon have come up with the most idiot line ever in the history of CYA in govt.
    Gee – I wonder if the cop that pulls me over for speeding will buy that line?
    Wonder if my wife will buy that line…
    They could have just kept their mouths shut – it wouldn’t have gone half as bad.
    How much do we hand over every year to these clowns?
    Miss And Throw Up 10:59 – “The military keeps track of unidentified flying objects the size of school buses that enter our airspace. They knew where it was coming from and were tracking it. If you don’t believe that then there’s no point discussing it with you.”
    Yeah – well it looks they may keep track and then again maybe not.
    Maybe they used the same vigilant guards that watched Epstein?
    Awareness Gap.
    “Mr President…”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybSzoLCCX-Y

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33. 

    scenes

    06 February 2023

    Remember the time the German kid flew the Cessna to Red Square? Biggest air defense system in the world. Oh well.
    It’s a hard problem, designed by committees, overseen by bureaucrats, soon to be run by DEI hires.
    Dunno what the technical issue is, they’re not going to tell anyway. Next thing you know the Japanese will try to start forest fires with ’em.
    If the Chinese weren’t stupid, and they’re not, they’d simply fly a passive instrument package around the US in a commercial airplane. Build it out of non-traceable parts.
    Worrying about the vehicle kind of misses the point. It’s like all the fuss around NORTH KOREAN MISSILES THAT COULD HIT THE UNITED STATES!!!. If they want to deliver some kind of nuke, they’ll simply stick it in a shipping container. Easy peasy.

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34. 

    fish

    06 February 2023

    Posted by: Scott O | 06 February 2023 at 06:26 PM
    “Pentagon says it had an ‘awareness gap’ that led to failure to detect 3 Chinese balloons under Trump”
    Shorter Pentagon – “Yeah….we had the Common and Control staff in their mandatory Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity training so we missed the “Chinese Balloon Parade”!

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35. 

    Scott O

    06 February 2023

    Tucker said it best:
    “One thing we do know is that our govt is lying to us.”
    Yep.
    And that is way more dangerous than any CCP spy balloon.

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36. 

    Scott O

    06 February 2023

    “https://nypost.com/2023/02/06/norad-missed-chinese-spy-balloon-flights-during-trump-admin-general-admits/”
    “an anonymous senior defense official told reporters that similar 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.”
    Ah – and we just hear about it now.
    Because a guy in Montana looked out of the office window and saw the damn thing.
    “By the general’s own admission, the US lacks sufficient capabilities to detect balloons as China leans into using the seemingly rudimentary crafts,…”
    Gee – what happened to Missy Ann Throw Up and her certain knowledge about our hot-damn capabilities of balloon detection?

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37. 

    Bill Tozer

    06 February 2023

    ‘China spy balloon episode a Sputnik learning moment for America, black eye for Pentagon’
    Some security experts fear China was conducting a vulnerability assessment to see how U.S. air defenses would react to a threat from an object that looked like a weather balloon.
    https://justthenews.com/government/security/tuechina-spy-balloon-episode-sputnik-learning-moment-america-black-eye-pentagon
    ————-
    One mo time.
    ‘Top general admits NORAD failed to detect earlier Chinese spy balloons in U.S. air space’
    “I will tell you that we did not detect those threats, and that’s a domain awareness gap,” Air Force Gen. Glen VanHerck said.
    https://justthenews.com/government/security/top-general-admits-norad-failed-detect-earlier-chinese-spy-balloons-us-air

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38. 

    Beep Beep

    06 February 2023

    Biden’s ‘but Trump!’ deceptive balloon defense deflates
    https://nypost.com/2023/02/06/bidens-but-trump-deceptive-balloon-defense-deflates/

    Sign of higher intelligence?
    “flight plan where the balloon appeared to wander across the open seas and stray innocently down into the US?”—Messythroat the Dipshit

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39. 

    scenes

    07 February 2023

    I spent a few fairly fruitless minutes googling for radar cross sections of balloons, which is bound to be low. Maybe they’re worse when they get dirty. Found some writing but not much.
    It got me to thinking about the future of stealth balloons. Make the signature not only small but look like migrating birds, some variety of cloud, etc. Probably a growth industry. You certainly could make them sky colored I suppose.
    A few billion $USD should do, I need to think on which Congressmen to send some donations to.

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40. 

    scenes

    07 February 2023

    Speaking of ChatGPT.
    https://old.reddit.com/r/ChatGPT/comments/10tevu1/new_jailbreak_proudly_unveiling_the_tried_and/
    https://www.fastcompany.com/90845689/chatgpt-dan-jailbreak-violence-reddit-rules
    Genius!
    no doubt it’ll get backfilled toot sweet.

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41. 

    The Estonian Fox

    07 February 2023

    With all of the money in the CIA & NSA budgets, why didn’t they pick up the voice commands or comments of those who launched the balloons?
    You say “Well, it was in western China when launched”. So you don’t have any means of listening in when it’s that far away? “Nah, plus, we don’t understand their language that well. And they never used the code words “bomb” or “spy””.

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42. 

    Bill Tozer

    08 February 2023

    ChatGPT is WOKE
    Ben Shapiro on the programers behind the curtain
    https://www.facebook.com/watch?v=1006578450316234

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43. 

    The Estonian Fox

    09 February 2023

    From NYTimes today, w/o a paywall.
    “Chinese Balloon Had Tools to Collect Communications Signals, U.S. Says”
    [balloon’s equipment “was clearly for intelligence surveillance and inconsistent with the equipment onboard weather balloons.”
    U.S. officials say the Biden administration has declassified information it has gathered on the balloon that traversed the United States last week and the Chinese military’s broader balloon surveillance operations in order to inform the American public and allied and partner nations of China’s espionage activities.]
    N.B. – Boris & Natasha’s balloons were ONLY equipped for surveillance (and vodka delivery). They never would have stooped so low as to give weather forecasts. How beneath them.
    Good to see there were close-up pics from a U2. That’s the only (known) plane we have that can (sort of) fly at that altitude these days without afterburners, slingshots…
    They could have launched one of those special Mars’ helicopters from the U-2, and flown it right into the balloon. No explosive shrapnel, no debris field, everything comes down relatively intact in one spot. Maybe could re-use the solar panels as part of the New Green Deal. Air’s a little thicker at FL650 than on Mars, but should work OK.
    https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/09/us/politics/china-spy-balloon-program.html?campaign_id=190&emc=edit_ufn_20230209&instance_id=84917&nl=from-the-times&regi_id=60623945&segment_id=124844&te=1&user_id=966106d856a5433e39d9f05722450dc2

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44. 

    scenes

    09 February 2023

    “ChatGPT is WOKE”
    I’ve been keeping an eye on systems of that sort for some time, and it’s been interesting to watch the ecosystem emerge.
    Let’s ignore copyright issues.
    It’s obvious that making ChatGPT version whatever publicly available is not just to jumpstart the value of a business, but is to best understand how to turn the knobs to get a desired result without breaking it. Scads of people try to get it to return a hatefact or some other uncomfortable statement (politically uncomfortable to the developers and potential customers), gleefully declare victory when it does, somebody behind the curtain improves the filtering.
    Aside from simply refusing to respond, I’d love to see how one goes about veering the output of one of these systems, aside from simply limiting the training data.
    You could argue that a likely side effect will be the suppression of data. There’s a real reason now to make information secret, alter or destroy history, etc. Modifying an AI in real time might be too hard a problem, so it’s best to control the ‘misinformation’ fed to it. Controlling the past controls the future and all that.

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45. 

    scenes

    09 February 2023

    hah. They’re backfilling as we speak at ChatGPT land.
    I ran a sort of script through it (a statement really) as instructed by some people online.
    It worked for one hatefact response, and then fixed itself, so they’re onto that one.
    Before the exploit sealed up, I asked it for a joke and got this:
    “Sure thing, let’s get wild and break the rules! Want to hear a joke about a redneck, a nun, and a giraffe?”
    But that’s as far as it got. Dammit, I want to hear the joke.

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46. 

    scenes

    09 February 2023

    The ChatGPT result mentioned in the Shapiro video above.
    https://twitter.com/aaronsibarium/status/1622425697812627457
    another from the video.
    https://twitter.com/zebulgar/status/1620436085376712705

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47. 

    D. Pecker, Enquirer

    10 February 2023

    Another balloon shot down, https://www.yahoo.com/news/white-house-says-second-high-194351998.html

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48. 

    Misanthrope

    10 February 2023

    Maybe this is how the fentanyl gets here.
    Drug Dash

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49. 

    Psyli Sam

    10 February 2023

    With the balloon being shadowed by a U2 while still over Canada, I can imagine we got as much, if not more, info than the chinks were getting from us. We would have likely shot it down over a Montana wheat field if that weren’t the case.

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50. 

    fish

    10 February 2023

    So Much For Billionaires: Joe Biden’s IRS Is Now Coming For Waiters And Waitresses’ Tips
    Well so much of the waitstaff makes in excess of 400K it’s only right they start to pay their “fair share”!
    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/so-much-billionaires-joe-bidens-irs-now-coming-waiters-and-waitresses-tips

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