A Chinese surveillance balloon is causing a stir in Washington, and some are calling for it to be shot down. What does this have to do with China and what does it say about us? And what are the real threats we re all facing from China and the deep state? In this episode of Firebrand, we take a look at TikTok and its relationship with the Chinese Communist Party, and how it could pose a major national security risk. Firebrand is a production of the Firebrand Podcast. Copyright 2019 Firebrand Media. All rights reserved. This episode was produced and edited by Firebrand. We do not own the rights to the music, music, or any other intellectual property used in this episode. All credit for music and sound design goes to original artists and labels. Music by Nordgroove and tyops. Words and music by Zapsplat. Art by Jeff Kaale and Mark Phillips. Editing and production by Ian Dorsch. Our theme song is by Skift, courtesy of Epitaph Records, and our ad music is courtesy of Lotuspool Records. Additional music by PSOVOD and the Vigilante Records, produced by Suneaters, and edited and mixed by Haley Shaw. Please rate and review this episode on Apple Podcasts and The Electric Light Orchestra, and we'll be looking out for your feedback in the next Firebrand episode on the next episode of our new music video, Firebrand Firebrand! Subscribe to our new podcast Firebrand on SoundCloud. Subscribe on iTunes and subscribe on Podcoin. Learn more about your ad choices? Download our merchandiser? Subscribe in Apple Podcast by clicking here. Send us your reviews and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Music by Sticky_tweet us on iTunes Connect? Thanks for listening to us on Podulphia Connected by Twisterium Connected Media by PODCAST Connect with us on Strava and other links to our social media platforms? You can also become a fellow Firebrand fanboy and other merchandiotr? We'll be giving us a shoutout on social media in the podcast? , and we're listening to our newest episode on Podcon Connected in the latest episode on this podcast , and so much more! Thank you for all the love and support us on Insta-like you can help us out there and more!
00:04:46.000The President: Embattled Congressman Matt Gaetz.
00:04:49.000Matt Gaetz was one of the very few members in the entire Congress who bothered to stand up against permanent Washington on behalf of his constituents.
00:04:56.000Matt Gaetz right now, he's a problem in the Democratic Party.
00:04:59.000He could cause a lot of hiccups in passing applause.
00:05:02.000So we're gonna keep running those stories to keep hurting him.
00:05:06.000If you stand for the flag and kneel in prayer, if you want to build America up and not burn her to the ground, then welcome, my fellow patriots!
00:05:43.000We are broadcasting live out of room 20-21 of the Rayburn House Office Building on the Capitol Complex in Washington, D.C. Thanks for watching us on the livestream on Getter.
00:06:46.000You know, it's interesting about how the Biden administration has conducted its manufacturing policy and foreign policy with China, how the Trump administration did.
00:06:54.000And in that sense, there hasn't been a lot of disconnect between the two administrations.
00:06:59.000Is this an admission that the 30 or 40 year Western consensus that said, hey, if we bring China into the economic system, it's going to defang them?
00:07:11.000It had the exact opposite effect in it.
00:07:13.000Well, you know, whether it's Western engagement with China or whether it's Europe's engagement with Russia, there have clearly been a lot of lessons in recent years that engagement alone does not yield comfortable partnership and easy acceptance of a rules-based international order.
00:07:30.000And each of those struggles, obviously, is different, but I think some of those patterns do overlap.
00:07:37.000So amazingly, Chuck Todd is right about this.
00:07:40.000The bipartisan consensus in Washington for generations has argued that if we bring China closer to America through trade and economic engagement and diplomacy and global legitimacy, that they would be more like us.
00:07:56.000But China has not been defanged, as Chuck Todd would put it.
00:08:22.000We have created a de facto social credit score in this country where everyone in government from the White House to the Department of Homeland Security, even the FBI, they're trying to shape political viewpoint online.
00:09:17.000TikTok is the new big dog on campus, and it just so happens to be a company completely beholden to the Chinese Communist Party out of Beijing.
00:09:26.000And this obviously poses a major, major national security risk.
00:09:31.000In how addictive it is, in how personalized it is, how it caters to you based on, you know, all the data that it collects from your interests to what you're searching, to how you're liking, to how long you're watching.
00:09:44.000I mean, the data that they are gathering from American citizens is massive.
00:09:48.000And in the wrong hands, like in the hands of the CCP, it could be used for extremely effective intelligence gathering and other types of intelligence operations.
00:09:58.000I mean, they can see what's pasted, what's saved in your clipboard.
00:10:04.000They could gather your location data, your facial recognition.
00:10:06.000I mean, all this data is now in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party out of Beijing, and they can potentially have that data on elected officials, their staff, military personnel, you name it.
00:10:23.000And if TikTok isn't scary enough because it's in our pocket instead of in our skies, how about the surveillance devices that our neighbors, our family members, and even our local law enforcement fly over our skies on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party?
00:10:43.000DJI drones constitute more than half of the drone market in the United States.
00:10:48.000Our own Department of Homeland Security tells us that the CCP uses these drones and our desire to use them in law enforcement to gather key information regarding how to attack and harm us.
00:11:01.000So they give these low cost drones To our local police forces, sometimes our state law enforcement, and then as those drones are performing the functions directed by American law enforcement, they're actually sending data back to the Chinese Communist Party.
00:11:21.000That's in our own Department of Homeland Security's reporting.
00:11:24.000Now according to an additional report last year in The Intercept, The New York City Police Department, the largest police department in the country, is continuing to use surveillance drones made by a Chinese company that the U.S. government has made moves to ban, labeling it a national security threat.
00:11:45.000That may provide U.S. critical infrastructure and law enforcement data to the Chinese government.
00:11:51.000Albert Fox Khan, the executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, or STOP, a group that advocates against mass surveillance, said the warnings about DJI are just one of many concerns around the NYPD's handling of data that the department gathers directly or in conjunction with private technology companies.
00:12:10.000Quote, There's a lot of uncertainty about the ability to protect the data they're collecting on New Yorkers, and no clear reporting if that data is compromised.
00:12:22.000Now that was Kahn pointing to a recent hack of the city's law department.
00:12:27.000The possibility that some data might end up in the hands of foreign governments is alarming, he added.
00:12:32.000That can be a real risk to New Yorkers.
00:12:34.000And there are plenty of New Yorkers, including a lot of democracy activists, who have a reason to be particularly fearful of the Chinese government.
00:12:44.000That is the report from The Intercept.
00:12:47.000So tomorrow Joe Biden will give the State of the Union address and I'll be in attendance because whether I agree or disagree with President Biden, and I most often disagree with him, I respect the State of the Union and the office of the presidency far more than the Democrats who disgrace themselves and our country with multiple illegitimate impeachments of President Trump.
00:13:10.000So let's start with what we are going to hear from Biden on the domestic front.
00:13:15.000He'll tout better than expected job numbers, but that misses the mark.
00:15:13.000This is going to be the essence of the Biden argument.
00:15:17.000If you were advising President Biden, what would you tell him to do?
00:15:22.000I would advise him that it's not a viable strategy for the country to default on obligations, whether it's interest obligations or obligations to pay contractors or obligations to pay federal workers or obligations to pay Social Security benefits, that that's the stuff of banana.
00:15:48.000Republics and that he's not going to engage in any of that stuff.
00:15:55.000I advise him to basically insist that Congress do its job and approve the borrowing to finance the spending it has already both authorized and appropriated.
00:16:12.000I think he should be staying very strong.
00:16:15.000Will there be any cosmetic Things affecting looking at future spending at some point, maybe there will be.
00:16:25.000But fundamentally, this is not something where there should be bargaining.
00:16:32.000You can debate who will win the game of chicken.
00:16:34.000What you can't debate is that the American people will lose.
00:16:39.000But you do have this problem where there's a bunch of people in the Republican Party who do seem like they're willing to blow the whole thing up.
00:16:48.000And it's a larger percentage than I think you dealt with during the Tea Party days when they also threatened to default.
00:16:56.000Are you worried that even if it's a 15%, 10% chance that these Republicans can hold up the process and we do have a real crisis?
00:17:11.000I am worried, but I'm more worried about the consequences of kowtowing to terrorists.
00:17:38.000They called us traitors when we said Trump wasn't a Russian agent.
00:17:41.000Turns out one of the FBI guys involved in the intelligence intake on that case became a Russian agent.
00:17:49.000We were labeled insurrectionists when we sought parliamentary objection on January 6th.
00:17:56.000They called us the Taliban 20 when we demanded the rules of the House be changed to stop omnibus legislating and allow open amendments and arguments with actual time to read the bills.
00:18:08.000And now, you heard it just there, former Obama-era economist Larry Summers now saying we are terrorists for even having the nerve to negotiate spending policy as America accrues $32 trillion in debt.
00:18:23.000Now, I know the left says that Everything is terrorism now.
00:18:28.000But is it really terrorism to suggest that we have the same welfare-to-work negotiations that brought Newt Gingrich and Bill Clinton together on a spending deal?
00:18:39.000Should able-bodied, working-age people reasonably expect that you pay for their health care, even if they can work but choose not to?
00:19:26.000Maybe when we aren't meeting our own financial needs, we should reflect on the cost of exporting wokeness to other countries.
00:19:35.000Biden will boast about the weapons we've sent to Ukraine.
00:19:39.000If Biden would let the spy balloon into our country without attention, imagine how little attention is being paid to all the weapons we are sending out of the country.
00:19:51.000I shared my perspective on the Ukraine war on the floor of the House just moments ago.
00:20:02.000Which billionth dollar really kicks in the door?
00:20:06.000Which red line we set will we not later cross?
00:20:10.000China reminds us that we have real issues.
00:20:12.000China began its offensive against our homeland, infiltrating our universities, stealing our innovations, buying off our politicians, surveilling our citizens, all the while capturing the loyalty of America's most powerful corporations.
00:20:30.000China's influence is overtaking ours, even in our own hemisphere.
00:20:34.000Our conflict with China may turn very hot very soon.
00:20:38.000Many believe we are currently in the window of a possible invasion of Taiwan.
00:20:43.000If not deterred, such an invasion would immediately make life worse for virtually every American.
00:20:51.000But tomorrow, President Biden will tell us how much more we must do For Ukraine.
00:21:27.000But the amount of money we now pour into Ukraine makes Burisma's wildest dreams of wealth through Biden family influence seem meek by comparison.
00:21:40.000Defense contractors need there to be a war going on somewhere, whether the arms end up in the hands of ISIS, the Taliban, the Azov Battalion, or on the black market.
00:21:51.000They get rich in the business of weapons supply, but only when there is weapons demand.
00:21:58.000A serious nation would never let foreign interests abroad or special interests here at home dictate its foreign policy.
00:22:06.000The interests of our countrymen must morally compel our greater attention.
00:22:11.000And as the war slogs on in Ukraine, the benefits to Americans are unclear.
00:22:18.000Bandits in the Sinaloa Mountains hurt more Americans than the men in Crimea.
00:22:24.000But foreigners come to Washington to lecture us about spending our constituents' money on a conflict thousands of miles away.
00:22:32.000And my colleagues are eager to oblige.
00:22:36.000On this floor, Zelensky's demands got bipartisan standing ovations from most.
00:23:10.000This is escalating, and we are placing trust in leaders who do not deserve trust.
00:23:17.000John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, who assured us that the Afghan military would withstand the Taliban offensive, now says that there is no risk that Putin will go nuclear.
00:23:29.000The risk of miscalculation in Ukraine is much, much higher than getting it wrong in Afghanistan.
00:23:35.000A nuclear war between Russia and the United States would end human life as we know it.
00:23:41.000And yet Biden is doing everything possible to provoke such a disaster.
00:23:47.000The actions we are taking are not going to end the war in Ukraine.
00:23:50.000In fact, we are probably prolonging the killing.
00:23:54.000Tens of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians will die this year because Congress feels good when it sends instruments of death and billions in cash.
00:24:04.000Many dollars sent for the war in Afghanistan ended up in bank accounts in Switzerland and Dubai.
00:24:10.000To where will we trace the bounty of Ukrainian grift?
00:24:15.000This war could end tomorrow if we pursued negotiation, but Biden refuses.
00:24:20.000Not only do we arm the Ukrainian military, we pay their politicians' salaries.
00:24:26.000The $113 billion in aid included funding the Ukrainian government.
00:25:18.000We are back live and the live stream is fired up.
00:25:21.000Aliens and Space Girl on Instagram agrees we have to go after TikTok.
00:25:26.000Another Facebook user said that they weren't really looking forward to Biden's speech, but they were going to use a margarita to get through it to get to the Sarah Huckabee Sanders response.
00:26:25.000Seems like a common sense approach to spending.
00:26:29.000So the perspective of new lawmakers in Congress is always one that we follow.
00:26:34.000You'll recall prior Firebrand episodes where we've had Eli Crane and Ana Paulina Luna, two of the best.
00:26:42.000CBS's Face the Nation yesterday hosted freshman Democrat members of Congress Robert Garcia from California and Summer Lee from Pennsylvania.
00:26:52.000There were also Republicans that were there.
00:26:54.000Crime and immigration were discussed, and they were discussed obviously because these issues drove the shape of many of the midterm campaigns this last cycle.
00:27:03.000So I picked up on something in the Face the Nation discussion that really concerned me.
00:27:10.000It seems the Democrat strategy is to leave the rest of us unprotected, undefended, and afraid.
00:27:18.000So listen to newly elected Congressman Robert Garcia talk about the justification for people coming across our border being in a state of desperation.
00:27:33.000There's this myth that Democrats somehow aren't concerned about a secure border, that we don't want an orderly process.
00:27:38.000But we also want to ensure that we want secure, everybody wants a secure border, but we also want to ensure that we're talking about the humanity of people.
00:27:46.000These are people that are coming to this country that are desperate, that are suffering.
00:27:49.000And so this idea that we can't give these people justice, we can't support and help them, I think is anti-American.
00:27:58.000Congressman Garcia speaks of desperate people as if it's some new phenomenon in illegal immigration, as if people used to come for a different reason.
00:28:08.000Throughout most of my life, the principal reason people have come illegally across the U.S.-Mexico border has been desperation.
00:28:17.000The problem is if the U.S. taxpayer has to pay for all of them when they get here, We will be desperate too.
00:28:24.000And we'd prefer ambitious and comfortable to desperate and afraid.
00:28:39.000Desperate people should also be allowed to commit crimes against you, and we should think differently about crimes of desperation.
00:28:47.000We should think about them as less acute, less deserving of punishment.
00:28:52.000Listen to Democrat Congresswoman Summer Lee on that point.
00:28:57.000The vast majority of people in poor and working class neighborhoods are good people, and they are victims of crime that we don't say anything about.
00:29:04.000For instance, there is no police presence when they're a victim of waste theft.
00:29:11.000We're not seeing anybody in fair laundry.
00:29:47.000Don't really think that argument makes a whole lot of sense.
00:29:51.000While we've been broadcasting the show, The Ukraine caucus has sent around the Ukraine ribbon for folks to wear during the State of the Union.
00:30:03.000I will not be wearing the Ukraine ribbon.
00:30:06.000It was quite something when we had the Ukraine flag displayed by Zelensky on the floor of the Congress.
00:30:11.000It was like Democrats finally found a flag they were willing to stand up for.
00:30:16.000I stand for the American flag for the American people.
00:30:19.000That's why we need sensible border policy.
00:30:21.000That's why we need a criminal justice system that holds people accountable.
00:30:24.000It's why we need fiscal responsibility.
00:30:27.000And it's why we need to end the U.S. contribution to this war in Ukraine.
00:30:32.000Thanks so much for joining us on Firebrand.
00:30:34.000Thank you for all of your thoughts and feedback on the live stream.
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