If it turns out that President Joe Biden actually ordered an F-22 Raptor to shoot down a hobby club’s weather balloon with a $400,000 sidewinder missile, he will deserve all the ridicule he gets.
The Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade is a small group of balloon enthusiasts “aged 11-years-old and up, kids, their parents and friends” that has launched over 25 pico balloons since organizing in September 2021.
Last Saturday, the group reported that one of their balloons, which had last been tracked floating near the west coast of Alaska had gone missing, according to Fox News. Later that day, it was reported that the Air Force had shot down an unidentified object over the northern coast of Alaska near Prudhoe Bay.
As farfetched as it may be, this scenario appears to be perfectly reasonable. In a Feb. 14 blog post, the NIBBB noted that “Pico Balloon K9YO had “last reported on February 11th at 00:48 zulu near Hagemeister Island after 123 days and 18 hours of flight” and appeared to be missing in action.
The post included the balloon’s projected trajectory (based on wind speeds and directions) at the time it went missing which would have taken it right across central Alaska and over the Yukon Territory.
(Note: The first of the three unidentified objects shot down last weekend occurred over Prudhoe Bay which is off the northern coast of Alaska, but a second object was targeted just over 100 miles into the Yukon Territory from the central Alaskan border.)
NIBBB also reported that the balloon was floating at an altitude of 38,910 ft. at that time.
Clearly, much of this information tracks with the minimal amount we’ve been told by administration officials.
Finally, on Thursday, Biden broke his silence on the objects that were shot down last weekend.
“We don’t yet know exactly what these three objects were,” he told reporters. “But nothing, nothing right now suggests they were related to China’s spy balloon program, or that they were surveillance vehicles from any other country.”
“The intelligence community’s current assessment is that these three objects are most likely balloons tied to private companies, recreational or research institutions, studying weather or conducting other scientific research,” Biden said.
His full remarks can be read here.
Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz was the first to hit the president over his administration’s incompetence. First he posted an article from Aviation Week which said, “A small, globe-trotting balloon declared ‘missing in action’ by an Illinois-based hobbyist club has emerged as a candidate to explain one of the three mystery objects shot down by four heat-seeking missiles launched by U.S. Air Force fighters.” Cruz wrote: “President Biden needs to tell the American people whether this is true.”
🤦♂️
President Biden needs to tell the American people whether this is true. https://t.co/XxrJwzUTwq
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) February 16, 2023
Then, his comments took a more sarcastic turn. He said, “To be fair, Biden is providing is powerful deterrence for any high school science clubs that might try to invade America…. “
To be fair, Biden is providing is powerful deterrence for any high school science clubs that might try to invade America…. https://t.co/kk5NNMtDCE
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) February 16, 2023
Biden shouldn’t be allowed to get off the hook so easily for his inept handling of the original Chinese surveillance balloon or the three subsequent (likely) private balloons. The fact remains that he allowed the Chinese balloon to transit the entire U.S. mainland for a week, while it flew over our most strategic military installations gathering data all the way, before shooting it down. Then he does a complete 180 and sends fighter jets to take down science club balloons.
Unfit doesn’t begin to describe this president and his administration.
A previous version of this article appeared in The Western Journal.
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Biden humiliated? Not so. Sadly, the entire USA is humiliated by this pretender-in-chief, who was installed in the office by an election that is fraught with accusations of fraud. My opinion anyway, I could be wrong.
Instead, Biden seems to be enjoying it, trying his best to humiliate us.
I share your opinion.
Senile little girl fondling Joe Biden isn’t smart enough to know when he should be humiliated.
Not 1 $446,000. missile, but 2 !!! $892,000, not counting the aircraft/pilot flight time, ect. to shoot down a under $100. hobby balloon from Party City! Not only should Bidet be embarrassed, how about the Air Farce pilot in the Billion $ jet that MISSED the first time ! This illegitimate clown show of a liberal democrat government has got to be trying for the Stupidity Golden Cup or something.