🇺🇸 It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s…

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Good morning, and happy Tuesday! Happy Valentine’s Day! Americans are planning to spend nearly $26 billion this Valentine’s Day. Here’s what they’re buying and which demographic will likely spend the most.

Plus, can't figure out how to write a love letter on Valentine's Day? ChatGPT has you covered.

Also, when you think of home automation, all the great investment opportunities have been taken, right? Today’s partner, RYSE, says not so fast…

FLAG POLLS

📉 Monday, February 13: President Biden Job Approval: Approve 45, Disapprove 53 (Rasmussen Reports)

🐘 Thursday, February 9: Nevada: Trump vs. Biden: Trump 42, Biden 40 (Nevada Independent)

🐘 Thursday, February 9: Nevada: DeSantis vs. Biden: DeSantis 42, Biden 36 (Nevada Independent)

🐘 Wednesday, February 8: 2024 Republican Presidential Nomination: Trump 42, DeSantis 32, Pence 8, Haley 5, Cruz 3, Rubio 3, Pompeo, T. Scott, Noem, Ryan

TRENDING

Left: What Really Happened to AP African American Studies Fabiola Cineas, Vox

Left: Netflix Misses Black-Jewish Cultural Dynamic Jacques Berlinerblau, MSNBC

Left: I Almost Wrote Off Biden in '20. What About Now? Robin Abcarian, LA Times

Right: America, According to Biden Amanda Carpenter, The Bulwark

Right: The Equity Delusion and Its Marxist Roots Wai Wah Chin, RealClearEducation

Right: I'm Pro-Science. That's Why I'm Anti-Mask Jennifer Sey, The Spectator

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QUICK CLICKS

Officials Say They're Not ET, Communities of Color, Ford Moving Forward

US: White House: "No indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity" with recent takedowns of high-altitude objects (CBS News) + Biden establishing interagency team to study unidentified objects in US airspace (The Hill)

Economy: Inflation may not recede in a straight line (Axios)

US: Buttigieg tells crowd White construction workers are taking jobs from communities of color (Fox News)

US: Parts of Georgia grand jury report on Trump and 2020 election aftermath to be made public (CNN)

US: AOC blasts ‘Jesus gets us’ Super Bowl ads, says they endorse ‘fascism’ (NY Post)

World: Turkey's Erdogan boasted of letting builders evade earthquake codes in 2019 (NPR)

Business: Ford to move forward with $3.5 billion EV battery plant with Chinese company (CNBC)

DEFENSE

It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s…

Over the past week, the nation has been inundated with news of high-altitude objects hovering overhead – and subsequent decisions by the US military to shoot them down. Just over a week ago, an object identified as a Chinese spy balloon was shot down off the coast of South Carolina.

Reporting from the Right: US military shoots down unidentified flying object over Great Lakes region; same object spotted over Montana (Fox News)

Reporting from the Left: UFO fever grips Washington (Politico)

From the Flag: On Friday, an object said to be “car-sized” was shot down over Alaska, then a separate object was spotted and shot down near Lake Huron. As questions continue to mount over what these objects are, and who’s sending them, here’s more from both sides.

LEFT-LEANING SENTIMENT

It’s About Time We Pay Closer Attention To All These UFOs

• While officials gather debris in a bid to learn more, we now know China has been spying with balloons since the Trump administration.

• A recent report from the US government shows UFO sightings are on the rise, as the Pentagon has encouraged their identification.

• While these latest incidents have garnered plenty of media attention, there have been credible UFO sightings for years, with little fanfare.

“What’s up with the unidentified objects that US fighter planes keep taking down?” Ellen Ioanes, Vox: “Debris from three of the objects is still being recovered as of Sunday. Officials within the Biden administration have been cautious about connecting the most recent objects with the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon, which officials said had been gathering limited intelligence about US military installations. … US officials only discovered China’s air balloon surveillance program within the past year, though the program dates at least as far back as the administration of former President Donald Trump. … The US intelligence community reportedly told NORAD that the balloons were a threat, but VanHerck didn’t specify at the time what US intelligence knows about the balloon program or how it discovered the information. … ‘It is wild that we didn’t know’ about the Chinese balloon surveillance program until recently, (Senator Chuck) Schumer said Sunday.”

“The strange objects in US airspace may be an even bigger problem than we thought” ​​Peter Bergen, CNN Opinion: “Last month, the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a report about ‘Unidentified Aerial Phenomena’ — in plain English, unidentified flying objects or UFOs. … the report by America’s intelligence community is worth examining since it may shed some light on what is happening here. January’s UFO report had a striking finding: The number of UFO sightings significantly increased between March 2021 and August 2022, during which time 247 new sightings were reported, mostly by US Navy and Air Force pilots and personnel. That’s almost double the 144 UFO sightings reported in the 17-year period between 2004 to 2021. The report suggested that the increase may be because there is less ‘stigma’ associated with reporting UFO sightings, now that the Pentagon is actively pushing service personnel to report any ‘anomalies’ seen in the sky.”

One more opinion piece from the Left: Forget China’s spy balloon; military UFO incidents are far more intriguing Marik von Rennenkampff, The Hill Opinion

RIGHT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Shady Skies With a Cloud of Uncertainty: Americans Don’t Like the Forecast

• The White House has projected weakness and confusion throughout this process, raising concern and alarm among Americans.

• Some – but not all – are convinced this is an elaborate way to keep the American people distracted from real issues.

• This situation has been mishandled from the beginning, including when NORAD said there was no threat – without knowing for sure.

“What’s Going On Up There, Mr. President?" Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal: “The military operations in North America have Americans concerned, all the more so because the Administration has been both tight-lipped and dissembling. It didn’t disclose the presence of the first balloon until civilians spotted it over Montana. Then it claimed it posed no threat, only to shoot it down after political criticism. … The Administration also whispered to its media mouthpieces that the Trump Administration had tolerated such balloon intrusions in US airspace, only to correct that story after Trump officials denied any such knowledge. Turns out the Trump-era balloons were discovered only after the fact using intelligence methods. … No doubt the Administration is still collecting information and wants to get its facts right, or at least we hope so. But if it doesn’t know what these objects are, the White House ought to say that directly.”

On Twitter, many right-leaning commentators suggest this is all a distraction…

Kyle Becker, Fox News: “Don’t let UFOs and Chinese spy balloons distract you from the fact a US President ordered Russian pipelines be blown up without notifying Congress then misled the American people about it, risking WWIII to defend a corrupt nation where his son Hunter raked in millions of dollars.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, House of Representatives: “East Palestine, Ohio is undergoing an ecological disaster bc authorities blew up the train derailment cars carrying hazardous chemicals and press are being arrested for trying to tell the story. Oh but UFO’s! What is going on?”

Grant Cardone, Cardone Capital: “Are the recent shoot downs, UFO, China spy balloon a military operations or just a distraction from Ohio spill, Biden Laptop, Ukraine Russian War, Epstein list, or a (real) threat?”

Although not all of Twitter’s conservative voices agree…

Matt Walsh, Daily Wire: “I don't know what's going on but I don't buy the ‘it's a distraction’ theory. The government doesn't need to stage some elaborate UFO hoax to distract us. We're distracted all the time anyway. Nobody pays attention to anything for more than five seconds.”

One more opinion piece from the Right: Biden's bonkers balloon bumbling: This national- security expert has MAJOR questions John Bolton, New York Post Opinion

FLAG THIS

Checking In as the American Public Watches the Skies

After the US military shot down the Chinese spy balloon a week ago, 71% said it was the right decision, while just 8% disagreed, and 21% weren’t sure.

That remained remarkably consistent along political lines, with 77% of Republicans and 76% of Democrats agreeing it was the right decision (YouGov).

Given it’s unclear what some of these objects are, it’s worth noting 41% of Americans said they believe in UFOs, although 50% say unidentified objects can be explained by human activity/natural phenomenon (Gallup).

FLAG FINDS

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WATERCOOLER

Pale Blue Dot, Slang Terms from World War I, Dollar Babies

On Valentine's Day, 1990, 3.7 billion miles away from the sun, the Voyager 1 spacecraft takes a photograph of Earth. The picture, known as Pale Blue Dot, depicts our planet as a nearly indiscernible speck roughly the size of a pixel.

Mental Floss: 20 Slang Terms From World War I

Outside Magazine: How Much Does It Actually Cost to Ski?

Beside Media: Ten Winter Skills to Learn This Year

Today I Learned about Stephen King’s Dollar Babies, a program in which the author sells the rights to some of his short stories for $1 to film students to help their careers.