“Would you like to ride in my Chinese spy balloon….”

If aliens are invading, I guess I won’t sweat that extra beer or slice of pizza …

 

We only have to worry if they comedown wearing masks.

 

I’ll start to worry when they stop showing up in the jet stream.

 

So Biden says we shot down three completely random (and presumably expensive) objects that no one has bothered to say they owned?

 

An Illinois hobbyist club says its balloon may have been one of the three shot down.

Hobby Club’s Missing Balloon Feared Shot Down By USAF | Aviation Week Network

 

I think we can dispense with the "may have."

 

They didn't fly upside down and take Polaroids of the balloon, but this shot of a U-2 buzzing it is still pretty damn cool.
Good article with it, as well, detailing some of our own Cold War use of balloons.

 

Langley Air Force Base in Virginia was swarmed by several waves of drone incursions throughout December. Langley is in the Hampton Roads and Newport News area, which makes it adjacent to about a half-dozen major military installations.
The various government agencies involved in the response are obviously giving non-answers about what it was or who was behind it, but it was serious enough to warrant sending up a few combat air patrols (F-16s with support from multiple tankers), a high-tech NASA observation plane, and coordinating between the Department of Defense, FAA, NORAD, NORTHCOM and the FBI.
There are legitimate concerns that a few dozen cheap, off-the-shelf drones could do some serious damage to an Air Force base.

 

A small puncturing round was probably beneath the assets we sent against these balloons, but it would have resulted in soft landings and a wealth of counterintelligence. But no, we had to go full Full Metal Jacket.