Tubularsock

WHETHER WEATHER OR SPY BALLOON BALONEY

Tubularsock has a question.

According to many members of Congress and many in the State Department and Military: CHINA IS OUR ENEMY!

CHINA IS SPYING ON US!

Yet, China was the United States’ largest supplier of goods imports in 2020. To the tune of $434.7 billion that year.

And as for U.S. JOBS ……..475,000 jobs were supported by goods exports to China and 283,000 jobs were supported by services exports to China.

That is 758,000 jobs in the U.S. that have been created to trade with China.

SO ……… China is our enemy and are spying on us SO WHY ARE WE TRADING WITH OUR ENEMY?

It has always been a bewilderment to Tubularsock that the U.S. spy’s on China and Russia and Germany and England and France and Spain and Japan and ………………….

But when others “spy on us” we are appalled and shocked. Go figure.

But all this current balloon baloney in truth is MUCH TO DO ABOUT NOTHING!

The Chinese have a very extensive and far reaching satellite technology program only second to the United States. So why balloons?

It seems high altitude balloons have some advantages over satellites. Under harsh environments at 68,000 feet above the Earth they have long endurance times, which can achieve sustained and wider coverage for regional observation and detection, according to the Chinese Academy of Science.

The high-altitude balloons are harder to spot by radar and don’t have predictable orbits like satellites.

Over the past two years the Pentagon has spent around $3.8 million on balloon projects. And plans to spend more than $27 million on the inflatable tech in fiscal year 2023.

The balloons, according to a Pentagon report, will collect data and transmit information to aircraft and may eventually be used to scan for hypersonic weapons developed by China and Russia.

Say what? “. . . scan for hypersonic weapons developed by China and Russia. Could that mean SPYING on China and Russia?

No! WE wouldn’t do that …….. we’re the GOOD GUYS!

But enough of this background material Tubularsock wants to get down to the explosive nature of this entire issue.

The Chinese has stated that their weather research balloon went off course and ended crossing into U.S. air space. And you have to give the Chinese credit for that excuse. But it becomes a bit more difficult to defend when two other balloons crossed into U.S. territory as well. The Chinese seem to not be very good at old fashion balloon balance.

So it would appear that that much exposure may be more of a message than a mishap.

When the U.S. flies our spy planes near China we call that conducting a routine surveillance mission. And we have had incidents over boarder crossing in the past by our spy planes.

But balloons do have a bit less control than jets. Just sayin’.

None the less we just had to BLOW THAT BALLOON UP!

It’s the macho thing to do!

Now for Tubularsock that is the funniest part.

In order to protect people and property the Buydone Administration waited for THE EVIL BALLOON to pass into the Atlantic Ocean space before blowing it up.

Now think on this!

Any information that that balloon had collected had already been sent to China so blowing it up at that point didn’t destroy any “spy” information.

And then to blow it up over water complicated recovery. DUMB. But that is not new for the U.S. Government!

And the cost of this macho stunt …………….

Well, first the U.S. military had to roll out a $334million F-22 which cost roughly $70,000.00 to operate per hour.

And you know you can’t just send one up alone so it just has to have a sidekick. At least one.

And then at about 58,000 feet while the EVIL BALLOON was hovering at about 65,000 feet our $334million F-22 fired a $472,000.00 AIM-9X Sidewinder missile and blew it up.

Well, not all the way up. More like brought it down into the ocean where “recovery” could proceed.

And now this is where the real cost begin because EVERYONE has to get CREDIT for saving AMERICA SO:

“The F-22 was supported by an array of Air Force and Air National Guard fighter jets and tankers, including F-15s from Massachusetts and tanker aircraft from Oregon, Montana, Massachusetts, South Carolina and North Carolina. All pilots returned safely to base and there were no injuries or other damage on the ground, a senior military official told reporters in a Saturday briefing.”

And THAT was all for an unarmed

EVIL BALLOON.

Spare Tubularsock!

Tubularsock’s real question is, Just how many assholes fit on a head of a pin?