Democrats complicity with the defense industry? No, I can't prove anything on that score. 100% opinion so I'm not going to argue if you say 100% bullshit. Either way, a subtle difference.

Do Generals offer political advice? I certainly hope the fuck not! ;) Did you really work in this field? Did you ever offer political advice to your superiors? I never said the Executive Branch doesn't listen to the Generals. Of course they do! But only on military matters. I doubt any Colonels who offered political advice to the Congress, Senate of Executive Branch would ever make General.

I don't believe they take bribes. No matter what business you're in you need to justify your service, try to keep up existing orders, get new ones if the opportunity presents itself.

Are General non-political? FAR FROM IT! But their political interests are focused on funding and being able to use it for the right stuff. They take their work seriously. But they're dealing with the dumbest fucks imaginable in Congress--short of that, people who want a powerful military but not pay for it ;) I mean, this isn't new for the history of mankind.

This is all reading tea-leaves stuff. It's easy for you to say Biden isn't playing us for fools because you work in the system. You know that stuff that would blow my mind. What about me? Or others? Put yourself in my shoes. Why should I trust a government that doesn't tell me about a bunch of balloons I don't see and then gets into a public war with China over one some guy sees in Montana?

I could go deep in the politics involved, btw I believe Lei (from Lei's Real Talk) in that the balloon is a consequence of China's first ever completely lame-duck government functioning for a few months before the CCP replaces them with a new one. If that's the case, Biden is using the incident to exploit Yi's current factional weakness. Who knows! Whatever it is, I don't believe it is risk-free. And I don't trust Biden to handle it well, sorry--because he's already suspect (to me) in the Ukraine war.