In explaining the three “auto size” balloons downed by the United States over U.S. and Canadian territory in the last days, president Biden said that we don’t know much about them and that the “intelligence” assessment is that they were “tied to private companies, recreation or research institutions studying weather or conducting other scientific research (italics mine).”
I am trying to figure out which “recreation [sic] institutions” would be studying weather. All I can come up with is ski resorts predicting the amount of snow to come but that’s just a guess. Another idea is that Disney (a “recreation institution”) could be doing “scientific research” on how to keep control over its Walt Disney World Florida special tax district that Florida has just revoked. How a balloon over say, Lake Huron would help Disney more than lawyers at Cravath escapes me.
In fact, I suggest that Biden’s non statement statement comes from one of the biggest lands in the world, the land of I-Don’t-Know. In our daily personal and professional lives, the land of I-Don’t-Know is a constant irritant that offers non answer answers to questions like “has the mail arrived,” and “what is the holding in the Supreme Court’s Marbury vs. Madison decision,” and “where’s mommy.”
Because pressure from both parties demanded that Biden “address the American people” on the balloon subject, Biden did so even though he hasn’t the faintest idea of who, what, when and how. When you are in the land of I-Don’t-Know but cannot confess to residency there, you come up with, yes, Mr.President, malarkey. [The author of the sentence tagging “recreation institutions” with weather study should look for other work, perhaps with MTG to further investigate Jewish space lasers.]
The three offending small balloons were shot down by an F-22 aircraft using AIM-9X Sidewinder missiles costing $400,000 each. If you think that adds up to $1,200,000 you’re wrong. They missed on one of the balloons so had to fire another missile. Pretty good for an I-Don’t-Know exercise caused by increasing the sensitivity of our radar so that stuff appears that otherwise would not. It’s a little like upping the volume on your hearing aid so you hear stuff you never did before and don’t want to hear now. By the way, the last time I thought of Lake Huron is when I learned the Great Lakes in third grade.
It is now reported by the Wall Street Journal that one of the eradicated balloons may have belonged to the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade, a “civilian balloon club” that flies amateur weather balloons. The Brigade’s website reports that one of its balloons is “missing in action” after flying over Canada’s Yukon territory. And you thought that canasta clubs were weird.
Then there is the subject of the real balloon, the China balloon, not to be confused with the China virus. It was downed by an AIM-9X Sidewinder, so that’s another $400,000. Again, politicians from both parties are criticizing Biden for not tossing a Sidewinder at that balloon sooner. The argument goes that he found out about it that day but didn’t reveal it until another day and only shot it down on yet another day. His argument is that he listened to military advice and waited until it would fall in the water instead of doing damage to persons and property if slammed over land. Works for me!
In another useless act, the bosses in the Senate have asked for a full, secure briefing on all four balloons. Since three of them are nothings and the China balloon’s payload is still under study, the Senators would learn more by cutting the I-Don’t-Know briefing and going to Cafe Milano.
The China balloon was a spy balloon. And China lied about it saying it was “civilian” and just studying the weather. But the balloon was redundant because China has numerous intelligence satellites that can see what you are having for breakfast, something that even the best balloon probably cannot do.
And then there is the ultimate Chinese snoop: TikTok!
The moral: politicians should resist pressure to talk about something when there is nothing substantive to say. And if you think you have to say something, say I don’t know.