Isaac Saul (11:24)
All right, first up, let's start with what the left is saying. The left is concerned about the issues raised by aircraft sightings, with many arguing that the US Needs better policies to respond to drone threats. Some say that the lack of clear answers from federal authorities is alarming. Others note the privacy issues raised by drones. In the Washington Post, Max Boot said, new Jersey needs to get a grip, but our drone defenses need work. Mass hysteria is a recurring feature of American life. In 1938, it was about an alien invasion sparked by Orson Welles radio drama the War of the worlds. In the 1950s, it was flying saucers. Today it's drones, another form of UFO or unidentified flying object. New Jersey in particular has been gripped in recent days by alarmism about large, mysterious drones that are supposedly flying over the state, bout wrote. Though the New Jersey drone threat is at the very least greatly exaggerated, there are genuinely domestic security concerns about the proliferation of drones. More than 1.7 million drones are registered for commercial and recreational use in the United States, and it's not hard to imagine some of them being employed for espionage or even terrorist attacks. The Defense Department, the dhs, the FBI and the Energy Department all have responsibilities to protect various domestic targets from drones, but they are also extremely limited in their authorities and resources to actually interdict potential threats, Boot said. The limited powers that the FAA has to counter drone threats are due to expire on December 20th. The Biden administration is supporting bipartisan legislation in both houses of Congress that would authorize the DHS to create a pilot counter drone program in cooperation with state and local partners. But the legislation has been held up by civil liberties concerns from both the left and the right. In the Philadelphia Inquirer, Gregory T. Goines wrote, I'm a UFO researcher from New Jersey. The drone situation is out of control. As a UFO researcher for over a decade, I'm being asked by friends, family and neighbors to explain what's happening in our community. While I don't have all the answers, and neither does the FBI, which is currently investigating, I try to reassure people that there's likely nothing to fear, goyne said. But the truth is I am concerned, and I'm also searching for answers. These incidents follow a troubling dozens of aircraft varying in size and shape, emitting bright lights and persisting for days or weeks. After years of such events around US Sites equipped with the most advanced sensors available, you'd think the military could offer some answers to ease public concern. I acknowledge that national security implications must be considered by sharing sensitive intelligence information with the public. Revealing what we know or don't know about these objects could risk tipping our hand to adversaries, goins wrote. But when unidentified aircraft are penetrating our defenses and arriving at our doorsteps with impunity, it's time for the Pentagon to show its cards. As citizens, we deserve the truth, and we're prepared to handle it. In msnbc, Neil Richards and Ryan Durie called the issue a privacy wake up call. Anxiety about these unexplained flying objects is certainly understandable, as are calls for the investigation and regulation of drone flights. There may be laws that are being broken here, and if no laws are being broken, maybe we need better laws. At their core, though, a lot of the concern here boils down to the need to better protect our privacy, Richardson Durie said. New Jerseyans, like all Americans, don't want others snooping in their private affairs, whether via mysterious flying video cameras hovering over their patios, data brokers scooping up their health and location data, or old fashioned peeping Toms. Privacy matters because information is power, and information about people means power over those people, regardless of whether we are talking about drone cameras watching us in our homes, social networks sharing sensitive data about us with advertisers or artificial intelligence algorithms using our data to generate scores about our eligibility for health insurance, jobs or access to loans, richardson Durie wrote. Hopefully we'll get to the bottom of this mystery soon. But at the very least, the New Jersey drone mystery should be a wake up call. We need our elected officials to act thoroughly to protect our privacy against new technological threats, aerial or otherwise. All right, that is it for what the left is saying. Which brings us to what the right is saying. The right is alarmed by the possible drone sightings and critical of the government's response. Some say speculation about the aircraft as UFOs distracts from important national security issues. Others say the Biden administration has characteristically faltered in its handling of the issue. In Fox News, Rebecca Grant said America has a drone problem and no one is in charge. America's got a drone problem. Some are actually airplanes. Some drones are legal and no threat to you and me. Some are flown by drug cartels dropping off fentanyl. In San Diego, General Greg Guillot, Commander, US Northern Command, told the Senate that more than 1,000 drones per month cross the southern border. Other drones belong to the police or to the military, Grant wrote, but without question. The US Is vulnerable to a national security threat from drones in a way we've never experienced before. Many US Military installations have anti drone systems. The rest of the country does not. A new plan for countering drones in US Airspace should be a top priority for President Elect Trump's incoming Cabinet. What worries me is the pattern emerging of sightings of multiple drones operating at low altitude with persistent and coordinated overwatch near military bases and critical infrastructure, grant said. It doesn't feel like this Last gasp Biden White House is working on the problem Ever since the Chinese spy balloon traipsed from Montana to South Carolina in 2023, Americans have realized that our skies are not always safe. We are a low trust society. The lack of transparency is almost worse than the drones. In the Wall Street Journal, HOLMAN W. Jenkins Jr. Wrote about mystery drones and nuclear stability House and Senate subcommittees are taking seriously mysterious drones seen flying near military sites around the country, joined by increasingly hysterical sightings in New York and New Jersey. The bad news? The subcommittees are the ones addicted to conflating any unexplained sightings in the sky with the always crowd pleasing vigil for alien visitors, jenkins said. A serious country would have gotten serious after a one ton Chinese spy balloon was tracked over the US for days last year. Instead, a realistic discussion was sidelined by a Biden White House statement saying it had no evidence that aliens were involved. Sorry to disappoint, but if 100% of identified objects aren't alien spacecraft, perhaps 100% of unidentified objects also aren't alien spacecraft. Many sightings will continue to be too ephemeral or poorly documented to be resolved, thereby keeping the UFO'ers happy. But an unappreciated urgency is starting to attach to making sense of those sightings that might herald destabilizing new technologies or otherwise give rise to fears, suspicions and hysterias that could erode the margin of nuclear restraint in a confrontation. In the Washington Examiner, Christopher Trimogli criticized Biden's inadequate answers on New Jersey drones. Under normal circumstances, widespread reports of drones flying over the Mid Atlantic region would cause concern. Small, unmanned flying objects hovering over cities in one of the most densely populated areas in the country raises many red flags. However, the fact that the Biden administration is seemingly clueless about who or what is behind the apparent drone invasion is arguably even more alarming, trimogli said. It's a sign of gross incompetence, negligence or an outright dereliction of duty. Unfortunately, with the Biden administration, one can never tell which it is perhaps the biggest question is how and why these breaches and security vulnerabilities keep happening, particularly under Biden's watch. First there was the aforementioned Chinese spy balloon, and nearly two years later, numerous unidentified drone sightings are happening on the East Coast. Biden has directed this country to spend billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine, sending weapons, defense systems and other defense devices to help a foreign country. Yet the United States cannot even protect itself from aerial espionage. All right, let's head over to Isaac for his take.
