The Balloon Theater of the Biden Administration

What is happening to it? We have lived with rare sightings of UFOs for years and now they are seemingly everywhere. And no, Stephen Spielberg isn’t making a sequel to ET. Initially, I considered at least three possible explanations:

First, we really see balloons and other unknown objects flying into our skies unintentionally from other countries.

Second, we are now deciding to announce and shoot things that we previously ignored and allowed to pass with impunity.

Third, those crafty Chinese are routing an aerial surveillance reconnaissance to learn how we react and gather intel on various units that respond in preparation for an attack.

If you ask defense contractors and many members of Congress, the answer is definitely number three. And we need more cowbells.

But then I heard from a source who works closely with NORAD. The answer is number two. General Van Hark, who commands NORAD, is now flagging anything that comes into US and Canadian airspace and ordering assets to shoot it down. In the past, General Van Hark and his staff would not order a combat response unless they had clear evidence that the balloon or object was hostile to a lethal threat. The same happened with the first balloon — NORAD decided the balloon posed no threat and did not order it down.

Van Hark’s decision was later countered when the Biden White House learned there was a big fat target that could be shot out of the sky and make the “Big Guy” look tough. General Van Herck was chewed out by a donkey and was warned not to be so quick to judge something as non-hostile even if it was “non-hostile”. Van Herk, like any other bureaucratic creature, lives to serve the master. Like Gollum from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I suspect plans are afoot to replace Van Hark soon and more inclined to fire someone first and ask questions later in charge.

So now we have a situation where we’re spinning off tens of millions of dollars in aviation assets just to chase some floating junk that we used to ignore. Oh well. Almost forgot the other purpose. Use the unknown to scare the crap out of the American public. Some of the objects we’re shooting at don’t spin much better than slipping through what could be a rogue ET or a super secret Chinese weapon. Then again, maybe not.