Well, our news is dominated by the State of The Union Speech due tonight and speculations about what Biden will say. And speculating on what the Republicans will answer. We will probably watch the first but not the other. They haven't had anything meaningful to say since The Former Guy announced for reelection. Matt Taibbi, I think, labels the strategy well: government by panic. I only get the first couple of paragraph (the rest requires a paid subscription) but the reaction of Republicans over the last two years supports that description. Frankly, I was sick of it 2 minutes into TFG's inaugural speech.
The tragedy of the earthquake in Turkiye and Syria continues. They say the death toll, so far, is about 5k and likely to be among the three or four worst in recent history. This morning one of the news commentators recalled the 1999 quake which racked up between 15k and 18k dead. The Turkish President Erdogan was quoted calling up the image of the 1939 quake during which 32+k died.
Improve The News, which covers several stories providing alternative and contrasting narratives, has a bit on The Balloon controversy. I really like the "cynical" take on it:
Cynical narrative: This whole story is an overreaction by the media. Whether you believe the balloon was a spying tool for China or it was just an off-course weather balloon, it certainly didn’t deserve the attention it received. Either the networks decided they needed to gin up ratings with scare tactics, and/or government representatives on both sides were feeding the frenzy to quash a US-China détente on purpose. But this balloon was nothing to freak out about.
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