You had to be either aboard the International Space Station, residing under a rock or sleeping the sleep of Rip Van Winkle if you were unaware of the recent white balloon affair.
Americans caught a glimpse of a large (estimated diameter 200 feet) white balloon floating in our skies at around 60,000 feet headed from Alaska toward the East coast of the USA.
Early onlookers may have been puzzled.
What was it and whom did it belong to?
American Intel decided it was of Chinese origin and up to no good. It seemed no coincidence that it floated in uncomfortable proximity to missile silos in MT.
The Chinese admitted it was theirs but said it was a weather balloon that had been simply blown off course. Those things happen. Americans even have an ‘Acts of God’ disclaimer in certain insurance policies. No harm, no foul.
Few if any Americans believed that.
But perhaps I should reconsider that statement. After all, despite all evidence to the contrary, there is still A Flat Earth Society.
The dénouement would come sooner rather than later when an F-22 took out the balloon with a missile off the coast of South Carolina and the balloon fell into the Atlantic. Whereupon the balloon and its contents were promptly retrieved…
