The Balloon Story: Full of Hot Air

On Saturday, February 4, the United State shot down a Communist Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina. This event has triggered days of speculation – which is what substitutes for news these days. There is speculation as to what was onboard, speculation as to its purpose, speculation as to its route, speculation as to why it was not intercepted over Alaska, Canada, Montana or the myriad of other state over which it passed, speculation as to what it may have seen and speculation as to why it was blown out of the sky by a rocket instead of deflating the balloon with non-explosive Gatling gun ammunition. You are as qualified as any of the “talking heads” and most of the politicians to speculate answers to these questions. But they are all speculation.

In contrast there are some bare, undeniable facts that should cause us all to fear for the foundations of our democratic government. But to begin with, you have to accept the fact that the government, particularly under current President Joe Biden, lies. It lies so regularly that it cannot distinguish between what must be withheld as a matter of national security and what is withheld in the name of national security that is really just about political embarrassment and/or bureaucratic incompetence. The lies encompass knowingly false statements, misleading statements, withholding information, information provided out of context, and, just to be thorough, anything that Mr. Biden ad libs. Despite repeated assurances that Mr. Biden would preside over the most transparent administration in history, the fact is that it is probably the least transparent and most disingenuous administration at least during my years on earth.

So let’s walk through the events of the Communist Chinese surveillance balloon incursion. It entered America’s airspace on Saturday, January 28, 2023, prior to that time it was being tracked as it left China and crossed the North Pacific Ocean on its way to Alaska and then the lower forty-eight states. After passing through Alaska and Canada it entered Montana sometime before 9:00 AM MST on February 3, passing directly over Malstrom Air Force Base, which houses one of the three nuclear armed ICBM “silo farms.” It was finally identified to the public not by Mr. Biden’s administration nor the United States military nor the United State intelligence agencies, but by locals photographing the balloon and distributing those photos and videos via social media. Eight days had passed since the initial incursion and there was dead (could have been deadly) silence from the Biden administration. (Cooperative military agreements with Canada would have required America to notify Canadians counterparts and visa versus. There has been no information relating to such communications and/or Canada’s reaction and, therefore, it it uncertain whether the Biden administration notified Canada of the incursion prior to public disclosure via social media.) The accumulation of those lies of omission stretched for over a week.

The Administration’s first public acknowledgments of the balloon’s incursion echoed the comments Communist Chinese Party’s (CCP) explanation that it was a civilian scientific balloon blown off course. Either that was a deliberate lie or we have the least effective military and foreign intelligence capability in the world. The administration had been tracking the balloon for over a week and knew, or should have known, precisely who owned the balloon, what it was capable of observing, and what electronics it had on board. It was only after all hell broke loose on social media that the Biden administration acknowledged that it was an intelligence gathering (spy) balloon and that it didn’t “wander off course” but rather could be steered remotely by the CCP. These were lies of false statements and misleading information from the Administration.

While the balloon was still over Montana, questions were being raised by virtually everyone including Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte (R-MT) as to why the United States military didn’t simply shoot the balloon down. The Administrations response was that it feared that the debris field would cover a twenty square mile area and endanger people and structures below. That was, to put it mildly, complete BS. It was the kind of response one would expect from some beetle-browed bureaucrat who has never been west of the Potomac River. It would be consistent with the view that the Elis* of the State Department take assuming that the rest of us are dumber than they are. But the facts speak otherwise. The balloon, again which had been tracked since it left China, entered America’s airspace when in passed over the twelve mile limit in the North Pacific Ocean off of Alaska, it could have been downed then and in the same twelve mile zone that it was eventually brought down off South Carolina. It then continued on through Alaska west-to-east. Alaska being the largest state (twice the size of Texas and larger than the next three states in land mass) consisting of 678,000 square miles – mostly uninhabited. The balloon could have been brought down at any time over Alaska with relatively little risk. When it crossed into Canada that became a Canadian problem and whatever they decided is irrelevant to our responsibilities.

It then re-emerged over Montana which similarly has a land mass of 147,000 square miles – again mostly uninhabited particularly in the area east of Billings, Montana, where it was spotted and photographed. (I was born and raised in Eastern Montana and know precisely the lack of population density throughout that area.) Montana Gov. Gianforte said to shoot it down and he, better than the morons at the state department and the new woke generals of the Pentagon, had a better bead on the facts than did they. These were lies of misinformation and they were repeated daily after the admission of the Biden Administration that a CCP spy balloon had penetrated American airspace.

Then the Administration went on to two new lies. First that it was simply gathering atmospheric data and was of no danger to America. They knew that was baloney by the sheer size of the electronics package carried by the balloon which was far in excess of anything needed for monitoring atmospheric conditions. Then they piled on by saying that they had blocked communications from the balloon to Beijing – of course we have to take their word for it both as to how they accomplished that and when they accomplished it. Since they were silent on the balloons progress until after it passed over Malstrom AFB in Montana, you would have to assume that the balloon already had gathered and transmitted the most damaging information by then. These are lies of deception and/or deliberate false information.

Finally the balloon was brought down just off the coast of South Carolina, in the same fashion and with the same low degree of risk that it could have been done off the coast of Alaska. It was brought down by an F-22 fighter jet which can operate above 50,000 feet and carries a variety of armed guided missiles AND a Gatling gun that is radar controlled. Piercing the skin of the balloon with a bullet would maximize the ability for the balloon to deflate gradually and thus increase the likelihood that the payload package could be recovered intact. Recoverinh the payload package intact would maximize the ability to determine what information was gathered, whether the balloon was steered, and how much information was transmitted to China. In contrast, hitting the balloon with an explosive rocket (which they did) would almost guarantee that the balloon would collapse immediately and the payload package would disintegrate as it plunged over 50,000 feet. The likelihood of information being recovered is somewhere between slim and none.

Had the payload package been recovered intact, there would be no arguing about what it contained but would force the Administration to confront China directly about its espionage. On the other hand if the package was destroyed, China could continue to claim it was a weather and agricultural balloon and continue its indignation over the downing of the balloon. And more importantly, the Biden administration could excuse its lack of confrontation of China on the basis that it lacked concrete information. So, I’ll leave to you to decide why they chose rockets over ammunition to bring the balloon down after it had already done its surveillance. This is again a lie of deception.

And finally, the unnecessary lie. It wasn’t the biggest, or the most egregious, lie. In fact it was a petty lie that the Biden administration just cannot keep from telling again and again. It is the defensive lie every time they get caught in a lie, in a mistake, in a bad decision, in another failure or whatever else is on the menu for the day. It is the lie that seeks to forgive them because former President Donald Trump did it first. In this instance the Administration rolled out the accusation that these balloon incursion occurred numerous times during Mr. Trump’s administration. They made the lie sound provable by saying it occurred three times – not once, twice or four times – precisely three times. And the collaborative mainstream media repeated the accusations without verification consistently. The problem is that military and foreign intelligence agencies (charter members of the deep state) decided to withhold the information from the Trump Administration as well as military commanders with a need to know. It wasn’t the first time these reprobates decided to withhold information from a president. So when queried about the Biden Administrations accusations Mr. Trump said not on his watch, and when John Ratcliffe, former Director of National Intelligence said not on his watch and when Gen. Glen VanHerck, Commander of NORAD (North American Air Defense Command) said it never happened, they were all telling the truth because these morons decided to withhold the information from these three people who needed to know the most. And the very people making the accusation all knew this and finally had to acknowledge they withheld the critical information. What a bunch of sleazeballs plumbing the depths of partisanship to protect Mr. Biden.

Ultimately the blame lies with those of you who voted for Mr. Biden because unless you were living in an ice cave in the Artic you could not help but know Mr. Biden’s penchant for lying and for collecting around him those willing to lie for him.

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* “Elis” is an honorific for graduates of Yale University. Those graduates who entered government service at the State Department and intelligence agencies have soiled that honor with their consistent message of appeasement before all else and that has cast them in the same light as the “surrender monkeys” of France.