Drone sightings theory
What are they? Hobby drones? Chinese spies? Iranian terrorists? Commercial aircraft? Planets? Stars? Secret U.S. military programs? Or just a fevered frenzy of imaginary events fed by mass hysteria?
Answer: All of the above.
However, there is evidence (an obscure article in an obscure aviation magazine) published about two years ago, describing the creation of a “flight corridor” for advanced “testing” purposes about 50 miles long on the East Coast. Its purpose? To develop and test avionics and protocols for “UAVs” (unmanned aerial vehicles) both piloted and autonomous (drones). This kind of (military) research and development can only be refined in its “target” environment.
By necessity, this program will require close coordination between the Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Defense, National Security Agency, CIA, FBI, local law enforcement and others. So yeah, it’s covert. Duh.
That “target environment,” of course, would be a densely populated urban region with multiple population centers, airports, military bases and complicated civilian (law enforcement) jurisdictions. (Flying their own drones.)
The result will be the creation of military “drone swarms” capable of navigating the urban environment day or night without bumping into the wrong thing (they hope). These may or may not be “weaponized.”
This is only made possible with large amounts of artificial intelligence and they will often be capable of functioning with little or no human intervention.
Can you say “Skynet”? Really, what could possibly go wrong?
J.C. Passmore Jr.
Elk City
Electoral College change
President-elect Donald Trump is claiming a special mandate by winning the popular vote, though only by a little more than 2 million (1.5%; and getting below 50% of total popular vote) compared to President Joe Biden’s winning margin of about 7 million (4%; 51%) over Trump in 2020.
If the Electoral College had already been scrapped, would the popular vote have been significantly changed by candidates campaigning in all states, not just battleground ones?
Why did Washington state have its lowest turnout in 28 years? Why was California’s historically low (California’s Voter Turnout Sank in 2024 — Public Policy Institute of California, Nov. 18)? With the Electoral College in force, did Democrats who vote only in presidential elections, historically more numerous than their Republican counterparts, stay home in reliably-blue Washington — and other such states like California? Notably, California supplied most of Hillary Clinton’s almost 3 million popular vote margin over Trump in 2016.
Constitutional amendment is one avenue to scrapping the Electoral College but isn’t the only one. Some states have already passed legislation triggering all their presidential electoral votes going to the national popular vote winner once enough states totaling at least 270 electoral votes passes this legislation. States not yet on board totaling at least 61 more electoral votes are needed. Washington and California have already passed this. States considered most likely to join anew are Virginia, Michigan, Nevada, Arizona and North Carolina (Map shows where effort to replace Electoral College stands — CBS News, Oct. 3).
Norm Luther
Spokane
