And you thought balloons were only for birthday and wedding parties. Surprise! Balloons have been in use for centuries. In 1794, “The French Committee of Public Safety created the Corps d’ Aerostiers.” “These balloons were sporadically used for reconnaissance during the French Revolutionary Wars, seeing action during the battles of Charleroi and Fleurus. Nearly 70 years later during the American Civil war, balloons were still being used for similar military purposes.” (nps.gov; January 12, 2021.) The high-altitude free-fall record from a balloon was set by Google Engineer Alan Eustace on October 14, 2012, jumping out at a height of 135,890 feet. Steve Fossett flew the first solo balloon flight around the world in 2002, flying over 20,000 miles in 14 days. “Lawnchair Larry”, Larry Walters, took to the sky in 1982 climbing to over 3 miles high while sitting in his lawn chair attached to 42 eight-foot balloons filled with helium. He took sandwiches for the trip, sunglasses which he dropped as he lifted off, and a pistol to shootout the balloons to provide his descent, which he also eventually dropped. He was found dangling five feet off the ground, the remaining balloons hanging up in powerlines which the power company had disabled, and he hopped out of his chair as a crowd surrounded him. Balloons are also used to scare off unwanted birds, to announce yard or estate sales, or lend directions to events. Balloons are used routinely to record and track weather data, and balloons can be twisted into carnival shapes delighting children and can be used to power kids’ toys. We can even sit on large balloons for relaxation or exercise.
The picture above is the “spy balloon” which had been haunting our Nation of late. We are doing our blog today to declare another use for a balloon, “Floating a “Trial Balloon”. We have all heard and are familiar with this term many have used, which has really nothing to do with any kind of a balloon. It has to do with a form of sample test to see if a proposed course of action would be acceptable as a method to use in moving forward with any plan. It is done to sample the reaction of those who become aware of this “Trial Balloon”. Usually, it is used to “test the waters” and to observe the reactions. If the reaction is very negative, the “Trial Balloon” is allowed to “deflate”, and the proposed course of action is halted. If few react to the “Trial Balloon”, this becomes a potential course of action to take.
What we have witnessed this last week is basically a “Trial Balloon”, sent by the Chinese Communist Party. They really could not care less about any potential secrets, pictures or videos that may have been obtained, for that really was not their purpose in sending this “Trial Balloon” our way. There is no doubt that the CCP has invaded our Nation’s sovereign air space. Why would they do this? We believe we can answer this question. It really doesn’t take a rocket scientist, or in this case a balloon scientist, to figure this out. What frustrates us is that apparently many in the woke lame-stream media cannot figure this out, and we hate to say it, but even those in charge of our current government seem ambivalent to what is really going on. Our Nation has been set up by those currently in power of our Nation’s government. We have shown extreme weakness in our foreign affairs of late. We bungled our retreat from Afghanistan, and we have stubbled our way into a kinetic conflict in a part of the world that has little bearing on the safety of our Nation. The current government has terminated policies designed to ferret out CCP operatives within our Nation’s business, college and academy institutions. We have not forced China to reveal how they allowed COVID-19 to be manufactured and released from their country killing millions world-wide, nor have we applied any pressure to the CCP to halt the manufacture and distribution of Fentanyl into our Nation, which is killing thousands. We have allowed the CCP to invest in our financial institutions and food processing and agricultural operations. They have been allowed to purchase our land. Even the COVID-19 injections have a connection to the CCP. Probably most troubling is that the current occupant of the White House has been compromised by the CCP through personal financial dealings, orchestrated by his family, and has become unable to act in the best interest of the country he is sworn to protect and defend. Our current government is only reactionary and seems unable to predict and have ready optional plans for potential events. Our Nation has proven it is weak and unable to make important decisions in a timely manner.
Do other countries protect their airspace? You bet! On July 27, 1955, Bulgarian jets shot down a civilian aircraft that strayed into Bulgarian airspace. On April 20, 1983, Korean Airlines flight 007 was shot down by the Soviet Union when it intruded into Soviet airspace. On April 20, 1978, Korean airlines flight 902 accidentally violated Soviet airspace and was shot down. Actually, the list is massive as nation upon nation have taken aggressive actions to protect their airspace. Why are we not defending our sovereign airspace?
What is disturbing is that those currently in control of our Nation have known about this balloon for months! They knew it was from China, because they have been monitoring it as it left China and flew over the Pacific Ocean, then over Alaska, and over Canada on its way to the U.S. It is not that the current leaders of our government were caught off guard. Even more troubling is that we are now learning that these balloons have been flying over Japan and other countries, and even over our Nation before. Currently, there are other Chinese balloons flying over other nations as of this writing, namely one being reported flying over Latin America.
China is Floating a “Trial Balloon”. They are testing our resolve, our courage, our defenses. China is watching what the U.S. will do. Do we take it down with a missile, or with a laser, or some other “secret” weapon system we have on the shelf? Do we reveal an undisclosed method of defense, dropping our trousers and revealing our hidden secrets? So far, we have been weak and have done nothing until the damage was done. Maybe we have intercepted transmissions from the package of sensors under the balloon, but that is not the point. The point is that the CCP has successfully penetrated our Nation’s defenses. What really was it carrying? Could it have carried bioweapons? How about a nuclear device that could have been exploded above us creating an EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) that could have disabled our Nation’s power grid system and many of our electronic components, devices and transformers, including computer chips found in most newer cars making them little more than very heavy paper weights.
China is Floating a “Trial Balloon”. Will the balloon’s destruction give China justification to take some sort of retaliatory action? Would this take us one step closer to a kinetic conflict? China is already at war with us politically, economically, biologically, socially, and in cyber space. China has been Floating a “Trial Balloon” over and around Taiwan for months, overflying their sovereign airspace and penetrating their sovereign waters, just itching for a response to give China a reason to invade. Are they just itching for us to take action giving them reason to escalate tensions? China is simply pushing the “envelope” to see what they can get away with. If our Nation responds “in kind” by sending higher level delegates to Taiwan or expediting the shipment of weapons and weapon systems there, we could be stepping into their trap. Prevention always supersedes retaliation.
How should our Nation have responded to China Floating a “Trial Balloon”. We should have notified the CCP that if that balloon reaches our sovereign airspace in Alaska, it WILL be brought down! Unfortunately, we didn’t know about its approach because that was another one of those national “secrets” our current government kept from the citizens of our Nation. No sense crying over spilled milk now. The damage has been done. Those sending any more balloons need to be warned that if they make their way towards our sovereign airspace, they will also be brought down immediately to preserve our Nation’s security. One writer put it this way. “So, if you climb up with a stratospheric balloon over 30km [98,000], every nation on earth is practically helpless. I don’t need to say that such a stunt would really tick off a nation and is by no means recommendable.” (Thorsten S.; September 3, 2017; aviation.StackExchange.com.) I guess our current government leaders were not “ticked off” enough. By every population sample we observed, there was almost unanimous agreement to bring down that “Trial Balloon” sooner, rather than the later time, as finally decided by our flat-footed government leaders. They were unwilling and unable to make the early call to terminate the balloons flight before it traversed the entire breadth of our Nation. Shame on them for making our Nation look indecisive and weak!
Our Nation’s FREEDOM and LIBERTY are at stake. Any country attempting to penetrate our Nation’s sovereign air and water borders without prior approval and coordination should be met with swift and decisive actions. If you agree with our stand on this Floating “Trial Balloon”, make your voices heard to your representatives.