Got it.
Rigged election.
They would rather chase white women in the suburbs than minorities. Somehow that strategy never seems to work out very well.
Donât think vaxx mandates are very popular with minorities who make up a disproportionate amount of the unvaxxed.
Once they are kicked out of work they will have plenty of time on a Tuesday to go and vote Republican.
I was actually blaming the Dems by and large. But sure.
Moving away from rigged elections for a bitâŚ
This was interesting and concerning.
"U.S. officials believe that a DJI Mavic 2, a small quadcopter-type drone, with a thick copper wire attached underneath it via nylon cords was likely at the center of an attempted attack on a power substation in Pennsylvania last year. An internal U.S. government report that was issued last month says that this is the first time such an incident has been officially assessed as a possible drone attack on energy infrastructure in the United States, but that this is likely to become more commonplace as time goes on. This is a reality The War Zone has sounded the alarm about in the past, including when we were first to report on a still unexplained series of drone flights near the Palo Verde nuclear powerplant in Arizona in 2019.
ABC News was first to report on the Joint Intelligence Bulletin (JIB) covering the incident in Pennsylvania last year, which the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) published on Oct. 28, 2021. The document, which ABC obtained a copy of, but only released a small portion of, is marked unclassified, but parts also labeled Law Enforcement Sensitive (LES) and For Official Use Only (FOUO). Other outlets have since obtained copies of this document, which reportedly says that this likely attack took place on July 16, 2020, but does not identify where the substation in question was located.
A portion of an annotated satellite image from a US Joint Intelligence Bulletin regarding a likely attempted drone attack on a power substation in Pennsylvania in 2020.
âThis is the first known instance of a modified UAS [unmanned aerial system] likely being used in the United States to specifically target energy infrastructure,â the JIB states. âWe assess that a UAS recovered near an electrical substation was likely intended to disrupt operations by creating a short circuit to cause damage to transformers or distribution lines, based on the design and recovery location.â
ABC and other outlets have reported that the JIB says that this assessment is based in part on other unspecified incidents involving drones dating back to 2017. As already noted, The War Zone previously reported on another worrisome set of incidents around Arizonaâs Palo Verde Generating Station, the largest nuclear power plant in the United States in terms of its output of electricity, in 2019. In the process of reporting that story, we uncovered other reported drone flights that prompted security concerns near the Limerick Generating Station nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania earlier that year.
âTo date, no operator has been identified and we are producing this assessment now to expand awareness of this event to federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial law enforcement and security partners who may encounter similarly modified UAS,â the JIB adds.
Beyond the copper wire strung up underneath it, the drone reportedly had its camera and internal memory card removed. Efforts were taken to remove any identifying markings, indicating efforts by the operator or operators to conceal the identifies and otherwise make it difficult to trace the droneâs origins.
A low-quality image showing the drone recovered after the likely attempted attack in Pennsylvania. The green lines are the nylon cables. A copper wire was attached to the bottom ends of both lines.
Itâs unclear how much of a threat this particular drone posed in its modified configuration. The apparent intended method of attack would appear to be grounded, at least to some degree, in actual science. The U.S. military employed Tomahawk cruise missiles loaded with spools of highly-conductive carbon fiber wire against power infrastructure to create blackouts in Iraq during the first Gulf War in 1991. F-117 Nighthawk stealth combat jets dropped cluster bombs loaded with BLU-114/B submunitions packed with graphite filament over Serbia to the same effect in 1999.
Regardless, the incident only underscores the ever-growing risks that small drones pose to critical infrastructure, as well as other civilian and military targets, in the United States. If this modified drone did pose a real risk, it would also highlight the low barrier to entry to at least attempt to carry out such attacks. New DJI Mavic 2s can be purchased online right now for between $2,000 and $4,000.
The technology is so readily available that non-state actors around the world, from terrorists in the Middle East to drug cartels in Mexico, are already employing commercial quad and hexacopter-type drones armed with improvised explosive payloads on a variety of targets on and off more traditional battlefields. This includes attempted assassinations of high-profile individuals.
The U.S. government is finally coming to terms with these threats and there are certainly some steps being taken, at least at the federal level, to protect civilian and domestic military facilities against small drones. At the same time, it is equally clear that there is still much work to be done.
This particular incident in Pennsylvania last year highlights separate security concerns relating to Chinese-made small drones that are now widely available in the United States and are even in use within the U.S. government. DJI, or Da Jiang Innovations, is by far the largest Chinese drone maker selling products commercially in the United States today and has been at the center of these debates in recent years.
Whether or not the modified Mavic 2 posed a real danger in this instance or if this was truly the first-ever attempted drone attack on energy infrastructure in the United States, it definitely reflects threats are real now and will only become more dangerous as time goes on.
3 Likes
I suspect the effect of vaccine mandates is being exaggerated. Most polls I can find generally show majority support for it, although it is not overwhelming. 60 percent seems to be a consistent number.
I would be willing to guess the problem with minorities is that those who want the vaccine are having a hard time getting it.
Letâs see how popular the mandates for 5 year olds will be.
Iâm not gonna change your mind on this clearly, but I guess I donât understand why this is any different to immunizing children against smallpox, measles, diptheria, etcâŚ
3 Likes
The force bit.
In Aus at least you donât get kicked out of school without those.
With COVID less serious than the flu for small children youâd have to be morally bankrupt to force them to wear the burden of adverse effects to protect non-children.
I suspect that child covid vaccines will become mandatory here soon. Just as they are for a bunch of other diseases.
Not commenting on the right or wrong of that, just suspect itâs coming.
How are they mandatory for other diseases?
The law does not apply to:
- enrolment in primary or secondary school (however, please note an Immunisation History Statement from the AIR does need to be provided for enrolling in primary school, however there is currently no requirement for the statement to show the child is up to date with all immunisations)
Canât wait for the melts
Why do you hate children?
We are both referring to the same thing. Currently child support payments are cut if a child isnât vaccinated. I suspect that will extend to covid sooner than later.
But you are right that kids will be allowed to attend school. There wonât be a blanket mandate, just everything else.
They can already be excluded from school if they donât provide immunisation history, thankfully
1 Like
What if they do mandate it for primary schools? Would you be in favour of that? In particular, a policy that sees the COVID vax as being the ONLY one mandated for that?
Probably. If there medical research shows no risk to kids, why not? School age kids are about to be the main transmission vector and the main victims of covid. If there is a medical benefit to the community and to the children, Iâd be ok with it.
Benefits for other vaccines too. All the ones on the schedule.
Why should the covid vaxx be the only mandated one to attend school?
I didnât catch your comment about the only vax thing.
I support the covid vaccine being treated like every other âmandatoryâ vaccine.
I actually agree with that⌠it shouldnât be treated differently to any other one IMO.
Iâm guessing thatâs not a huge priority though as we arenât getting 1,000 new cases of measles every day.