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Full of Hot Air
Author: BobR
Date: 02/15/2023 13:48:01
Americans and American news media seem to jump from one obsession to another. For a week or two they focus on one thing, with chat boards and tweets and breathless reporting on all aspects and potentialities obliterating all other items of concern. The most recent overhyped news story? The Chinese balloon.
This all began when citizens noticed the balloon over Montana (it IS "big sky country" after all). This created some wild speculation, and faux outrage from the RW media (FOX "News", of course). Is it a weather or spy balloon... or is it carrying a new variant of COVID? Why wasn't it shot down as soon as it was seen? Biden just let it spy on us - what does China have on him??? And - of course - there was Marjorie "three-toes" Greene carrying a balloon around the Capitol on the day of Biden's SOTU while grinning like the idiot she is.
You know the drill. Sigh...
Of course, that led to close coverage of every action taken by the U.S. military, as 3 other sky objects were downed in quick succession. These were smaller, possibly not balloons, and the DoD is not saying anything about them, going so far as to not ruling out ET craft, although that was quickly poo-pooed by the White House.
Now, according to CBS News, U.S. Intelligence was tracking the big balloon as soon as it left China:
This indicates the initial balloon was being controlled and contained spy equipment (much of which has been recovered). As such, it would seem likely (and - quite frankly - prudent) for the Federal government and DoD to keep some information about this close to the vest. With blank spaces in the official story, of course, people will tend to fill them in with their own speculations based on their personal agendae. This is what we've seen over the past couple weeks.
However, once the balloon was popped, the story quickly lost air (pun intended), and it's time to move on to another obsession. George Santos seems to have already run its course, so we'll have to see what fills the insatiable need for stimulation.
This all began when citizens noticed the balloon over Montana (it IS "big sky country" after all). This created some wild speculation, and faux outrage from the RW media (FOX "News", of course). Is it a weather or spy balloon... or is it carrying a new variant of COVID? Why wasn't it shot down as soon as it was seen? Biden just let it spy on us - what does China have on him??? And - of course - there was Marjorie "three-toes" Greene carrying a balloon around the Capitol on the day of Biden's SOTU while grinning like the idiot she is.
You know the drill. Sigh...
Of course, that led to close coverage of every action taken by the U.S. military, as 3 other sky objects were downed in quick succession. These were smaller, possibly not balloons, and the DoD is not saying anything about them, going so far as to not ruling out ET craft, although that was quickly poo-pooed by the White House.
Now, according to CBS News, U.S. Intelligence was tracking the big balloon as soon as it left China:
U.S. intelligence officials were tracking the spy balloon that was shot down earlier this month since it lifted off from the south coast of China, U.S. officials said Tuesday.
According to U.S. officials, after takeoff, the spy balloon drifted east in the direction of Guam and Hawaii and then went north to Alaska and entered U.S. airspace on Jan. 28. Given the path, it's possible that the balloon was blown off course by weather, but U.S. officials said that once it came south over the continental United States, it was being controlled by China.
[...]
Pentagon officials confirmed on Feb. 2 that they had been tracking the spy balloon, and said they did not want to shoot it down given the damage the debris could cause. Following the announcement that the U.S. was tracking it, the balloon stopped loitering and proceeded as fast as it could toward the East Coast, a U.S. official said. A U.S. fighter jet shot down the balloon off the coast of South Carolina on Feb. 4.
This indicates the initial balloon was being controlled and contained spy equipment (much of which has been recovered). As such, it would seem likely (and - quite frankly - prudent) for the Federal government and DoD to keep some information about this close to the vest. With blank spaces in the official story, of course, people will tend to fill them in with their own speculations based on their personal agendae. This is what we've seen over the past couple weeks.
However, once the balloon was popped, the story quickly lost air (pun intended), and it's time to move on to another obsession. George Santos seems to have already run its course, so we'll have to see what fills the insatiable need for stimulation.
