Balloongate

By Rich Kozlovich

There are a few things we know for sure.  It was a spy balloon.  It was from China.  It invaded American airspace.  The military failed to do it's job.  This might have happened in the past and was missed by NORAD (which is incomprehensible, and/or incompetence).  Biden is a blubbering buffoon surrounded by nitwits in uniform who have put the defense of the nation in peril. 

See, definition leads to clarity, and the following articles will confirm all I've said. 

• That Downed Chinese Balloon Wasn’t Exactly For Spying. It Was a ‘Trial’ Balloon, ByJames Holmes - Weather balloon? Spy balloon? Nope, and nope. I guess that the Chinese balloon sighted over Montana and Missouri this week – and just shot down off the coast of South Carolina by an F-22 Raptor  – was a trial balloon. Sure, it may have gathered intelligence about military doings on the surface below, but that was a mere bonus. If I’m right, Beijing’s chief reason for floating a balloon over North America was to see whether it would elicit a response from the U.S. government and military, as well as from the American people. And so it did, judging from the subsequent uproar in the press and on social media. Advantage: Xi Jinping & Co.

• NORAD Chief: US Military ‘Did Not Detect’ Chinese Spy Balloons During Trump Years; ‘Domain Awareness Gap’, Patrick Goodenough | February 7, 2023 - The head of the U.S. military command responsible for countering airborne threats to North America said on Monday that it had not detected Chinese spy balloons that reportedly flew over the United States prior to last week’s incident. Instead, those previous incursions had been discovered “after the fact” by the intelligence community using “additional means of [information] collection,” said Air Force Gen. Glen VanHerck, commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and U.S. Northern Command. He did not elaborate. According to an official transcript of an off-camera briefing to Pentagon reporters, VanHerck attributed the fact that NORAD had not detected those earlier balloons to “a domain awareness gap.”.............
• Biden Admin Failed to Warn Allies About Chinese Spy Balloons - A lot of scandals, especially those accompanied by denials and contradictory stories begin with, “when did he know and when did he know it?” The Chinese spy balloon situation is no different. There are still mixed messages and contradictions as to who in the government knew about the Chinese surveillance program.  After initially insisting that NORAD couldn’t spot the balloons and the administration had no idea, we’re getting extensive information about the program’s operations..........

• In the Aftermath of Balloongate, Now What? By Ned Barnett - This article had already been accepted for print in American Thinker when President Joe Biden “courageously” ordered the destruction of China’s spy balloon after it had soared out to sea, where there was nothing more to spy on. That balloon crossed the entire country, passing over strategic U.S. assets, such as the field of silos at Malmstrom Air Force Base, which houses a major proportion of America’s intercontinental nuclear-equipped missiles.   When Joe announced this “victory” over an unarmed eye-in-the-sky spy balloon with all the swagger of John Wayne at his peak, he tried to make it seem as though he he were bold, decisive, and in charge. The facts, however, suggest something else............Others who are closely monitoring this issue see America being humiliated on the world stage because of Biden’s inept unwillingness to act, but they don’t see the potential end-game.  For instance, Fox News Fox’s high-rated Laura Ingraham called Balloongate “China’s Trial Balloon. ” ...............
  
• Disturbing possibilities to explain the Chinese balloon, By Matthew G. Andersson - The media report of a Chinese-sponsored high-altitude balloon, the follow-up reports of its flight path over U.S. geography, and the "shoot-down" event that followed are all subject to factual testing, but on its face, the story represents one overwhelmingly incoherent assertion: that a slow-moving midlevel atmospheric balloon could violate U.S. airspace........One thing is sure: whenever an event has any military or national security implications, the story that is released to the public is carefully crafted as a public relations communication and not as a report of fact.
• Cowering Under China’s Spy Balloon – CCP Mission Accomplished, by Ilana Freedman | Feb 7, 2023 | Global, Military, Politics  - America never looked so pathetic as it did during the last week of January 2023, when a huge Chinese spy balloon was spotted, sailing unchallenged above some of America’s most sensitive strategic sites. The balloon, whose diameter was almost as long as two football fields end to end, entered the Alaska Joint Operation Area on January 27, Canadian airspace on January 30, and the continental U.S. on January 31, where it passed over Montana and one of the nation’s nuclear missile silo fields at Malmstrom Air Force Base..........“In Montana, Petroleum County, for example… the least populated county in the lower 48, I guarantee you, the fine citizens of Petroleum County would enjoy having it shot down over their county, and probably there would be a line to shoot it down.”  But the U.S. military claimed that the risk of human casualties and property damage was too great to risk by shooting it down over land.......
• “Look, Boss, The Balloon, The Balloon;” America is in the Hands of Complete Nincompoops, by George McClellan | Feb 6, 2023 | Global, Military, Politics -  To even the most casual observer, this business about a Chinese balloon overflying the USA with its array of military data collecting antenna transmitting full time to CPP satellites and doing nothing about it, is so shockingly laughable that one must wonder how Saturday Night Live will handle it. Apparently, Biden is credited with ordering the thing shot down, but we can’t be sure of that. We know, though, that some Pentagon sophist countered Biden’s order to wait until it cleared the Carolina coast for the protection and safety of the American people lest the debris should plop onto somebody’s head...........America is in the hands of complete nincompoops, including the GOP, whose leadership is still toying with the neocons of past decades who are as intent on returning America to the war-mongering country they so loved and dedicated to saving the world for democracy, as the Democrats are of making America a socialist utopia of oppression and impoverishment. The friction they are creating is going to start a conflagration they might not be able to stop...........
• Joe Biden Should Be Embarrassed By That Chinese Spy Balloon,By James Jay Carafano - The Pentagon admits it has been tracking a Chinese spy balloon in U.S. airspace. To be clear. This is no laughing matter. That said, it is hard not recall the iconic scene from the 1960s sitcom F Troop, where the Hekawi tribe is flummoxed by the sight of a hot air balloon. The response in the Oval Office seems to have been not much different............ What China just did, however, is no joke. And neither is this reminder of the fundamental weakness of Biden’s China policy............
• The Commander in Briefs – Chinese Spy Balloon Highlights Biden’s Ineffectiveness, by Greg Boulden | Feb 6, 2023 | Global, Politics - President Biden was caught figuratively with his pants down last week. Our military was watching the Chinese spy balloon for several days before claiming they were shocked to see it entering the USA over Idaho. President Biden ordered the balloon shot down. The Pentagon and Generals refused and told Biden they were waiting for it to be safe to disable..... PODCAST
• U.S. Navy Divers Recover Spy Balloon Debris as Beijing Warns It ‘Belongs to China’, By Simon Kent - Piece by piece the scattered elements of the downed Chinese spy balloon emerged from the ocean depths Tuesday, with U.S. Navy divers using sophisticated reconnaissance drones dubbed the Kingfish and the Swordfish to hasten the job.  The balloon debris is lying in waters some 50 feet deep but stretch across an area 15 football fields long and 15 football fields across.  It was retrieved even as an indignant China Foreign Ministry spokesperson warned, “The airship does not belong to the U.S. It belongs to China” and chided Washington for not being “professional” in its handling of the matter........ 

Well, I just might break out in hives saying this.  I agree with China's Foreign Ministry, Washington didn't handle this in a professional manner.  

It's my view that if they had acted professionally, they would have shot it down long before it entered America air space, and if the Chinese objected, they then should have told them to shove it where the sun doesn't shine.  After that firm, definitive, and descriptive official position, then they should have added a bunch of trade restrictions and demanded a billion dollars for the expense of shooting it down, and for irritating Americans.

Now, that would be my idea of acting professionally!  Waddaya think?